The Birds are Singing at Night
by kennana
Summary: As the Titans grow older, dynamics begin to shift as their leader sets his eyes on Gotham. While our original five grow more curious of what lies ahead for them, a threat from Raven's past comes creeping in to usher in a newer, darker world.
1. Too Much Unchecked Testosterone

[1]

A quiet evening in the Bay found Raven phasing from her meditation. The Empath basked in the serenity of her candlelit sanctuary, abnormally replenished from a week free of combat. As she lightly landed on her feet, a pulse cast across the room that blew out every last candle. In the darkness, a sliver of sun stretched across the floor from her window. Raven lifted the curtain slowly and found the sun sinking behind a protruding horizon.

"Raven?" called a muffled voice following a soft knock. As the door slid open behind her, she pulled back both curtains to let soft light flood into the room.

"I am sorry if I have disturbed the meditation."

"You didn't," Raven pulled back her hood and softly smiled at her friend, "you look nice Star."

"Oh, thank you," she blushed while tugging on the hem of her top bashfully, almost as if she wasn't used to her midriff showing. "Dick is taking me out for the for the dinner and maybe afterward some iced cream."

"Lucky girl." Raven attempted sincerity, though her deadpan manner always betrayed her. Fortunately, Koriand'r rarely picked up on the "tone of sarcasm".

"I hope your time of the deep introspection was successful?"

"Yes." She assured her alien comrade while pulling a sweater over her head.

"I am gladdened by this." Kori grinned as she hovered over to Raven's bed, sitting gracefully on the end. "I am less gladdened by the current activities occurring in the main room. Oh- Raven," she paused when she saw Raven tying her hair up. "Would it be, I thought I might, may I practice the earthly custom of the hair braiding again? I would very much like to try–"

Raven cringed subtly; cursing herself for agreeing the first time she was asked. "Why not."

Koriand'r relished in this permission and beckoned Raven to sit before her.

"And so Victor kept with the 'boo yahs', which made Dick angry and insistent on the rematches," Kori explained as she continued her second attempt at braiding Raven's hair. Raven bit her lip to keep from lashing out at her friend, even as she casually tore at her scalp. "then it was Garfield who was victorious and so the fighting commenced and–is something the matter Raven?" She hesitated when a few books bolted from the shelf across the room.

"No, just maybe pull a bit more gently?" Raven said docilely to hide the irritation that gurgled in her throat.

"I am sorry. I am still not used to doing the braiding on another's head, but I am glad to have the practice now." Kori smiled, placing a hand on Raven's shoulder.

"It's okay, Star. Happy to help." She lied as she reshelved the rogue books.

"Anyways, I just am hopeful that Dick does not bring his negativity with him tonight."

"Yeah," Raven smirked to herself, "nothing kills the mood like a begrudged adolescent pouting over a toddler-approved video game."

Kori bubbled her signature brand and tied the end of the braid before throwing over her friend's shoulder. Raven relished in sweet relief. A relief that was short lived, however, when they heard a large crash outside her room, followed by the bellowing voices of their teammates.

Without a word, Kori hastily flew out of the room; Raven followed closely. The shouting became more distinct as the main doors slid open, and they found Victor standing between Dick and Garfield. A small amount of blood was smeared beneath Dick's nose.

"Chill!" Victor yelled, his hands trapping them against opposite walls. The couch was tipped over and the coffee table's leg was missing with all of its contents spilled on the floor. "It's a game!"

"Tell that to Boy Wonder's god damn ego!"

"Kiss my ass, Logan!"

"Please, friends, stop this now!" Kori's pleas barely caught their attention.

"You're actually fighting over a video game?" Raven glowered.

Dick whisked from under Victor's grip and stormed away, passing them without a glance.

Stillness engulfed the room before Vic slowly let go of the Changeling. "You good, B?"

Garfield said nothing as he crossed the room and went out onto the balcony. Koriand'r opened her mouth to say something, but then retreated to follow Dick around the corner.

The remaining Titans briefly shared a distressed look before assessing the damage. Vic lifted the couch back upright and began picking things up off the floor, as Raven welded the coffee table.

"So, what happened exactly?" Raven asked as she headed towards the kitchen to make tea.

"I don't really know." Vic sighed as he fell back against the couch. "It went from harmless bragging to something nasty real quick."

"That's it?" Raven scoffed as she rejoined him in the main room. "It's not exactly unlike Garfield to gloat."

"It wasn't like that." he countered. "Something's up with him. He wouldn't freak out on B like that over a game."

"I'm missing something."

"He just went off, called him stupid and naïve and some other choice words that, well, felt weird coming from Robin. Brought up Terra out of nowhere, and," Raven caught his eyes dart away from hers, "you know, it just got heated."

"Perhaps there was too much unchecked testosterone in one room?" Raven said dryly, barely raising a reaction. The kettle began hissing sharply from the kitchen and Raven stood to silence it. Vic followed suit, only to walk passed her towards the elevators.

"I'll see you later, Rae." She let him leave without a response, dropping a teabag in her mug before glancing towards the glass doors. When she didn't see Garfield on the balcony, Raven felt around the Tower for him. She wasn't surprised to find him on the roof, knowing it was his preferred place of refuge. She considered returning to her room, to save herself the drain of attentive human interaction, but then reached in the cupboard for a second mug.

[2]

The elevator doors opened to reveal a darkening sky, as twilight laid a shadowy blanket across the skyline. Carrying both cups, Raven found Garfield sitting on the Tower's edge looking down at the reflection of a twinkling city.

"Hey," Raven said softly as her feet touched the roof.

"Hey," Garfield answered hoarsely. Raven offered him the cup as she sat beside him, hanging her legs over the edge. "Thanks."

Raven surveyed the Tower's grounds whilst sipping her tea, keeping the brim close to her lips. She tried to conjure the words to say but hesitated. It wasn't long before he spoke up.

"Sorry. I don't know how it got so, whatever that was."

"Intergalactic racing will do that to the best of us," Raven smirked, spying a small smile on his lips. "Though, Vic said it turned into something else."

Garfield remained quiet, his face twisted into something resembling anger and shame. There was a darkening spot on his forehead, that solved the mystery of Dick's bloody nose. Raven sighed and set her cup down on the roof. "Look, you know Dick can be a sore loser-"

"It wasn't the game," Garfield interjected. "He just, he's been so uptight. I mean, more than usual. And I couldn't believe some of the things that were coming out of his mouth."

"A week without the taste of justice can take its toll on someone like Dick," Raven said in a dry attempt to be funny, and his reluctance slightly unnerved her. "You guys will get over this."

"He wasn't wrong," Garfield said, his ears softly wilting. "I guess."

"He just knew what to say to rile you up. And Terra," She gently turned her body to face him more directly. This movement seemed to distract him as he looked up at her strangely. "It's been years, so, for your own sake, maybe let it go." Raven sensed confusion from him before his face softened with sudden amusement. "What?"

"Your hair." He grinned and a self-conscious Raven rolled her eyes.

"The alien wished to engage in the 'earthly practice of the hair-braiding.'"

"Aw, girlfriends," he teased, tugging at her braid. She narrowed her eyes and a black mass hit him upside the head, the force sending him over the edge.

Garfield dove towards the bay before morphing into a falcon, veering back up towards the sky. Raven didn't flinch when he soared passed her like a bullet, small green feathers dancing wildly in his wake.

Raven felt reassured watching him sail across the stars; he never stayed down for long. His enlivened spirit is too strong for his own minds discontent. She has always envied him for this, for having the freedom to free himself. Even with all of the Earth's beasts inside him, his humanity always seems to emerge boldly, reminding her of what it is they fight to protect. Over the years there have been many times when Raven felt inspired to slacken her restraints and trust her own humanity as Garfield did, but the consequential desolation of her suppressed demons has been, and always will be, too grave to risk.

Dick has always understood that the most; how important it is to her to remain centered, and this understanding have cemented a trust in him that the other Titans haven't come close to. His competence, courage and unyielding convictions have never failed to make her believe in her place with the Titans. His energy comes with a heaviness that Raven relates to more easily, yet sometimes she feels it may weigh her down further. She found that she occasionally liked to be lifted by the buoyant vims of her other teammates.

In all her strangeness, Kori truly is a beautifully mystic creature capable of captivating all those she comes across. Despite all the horrors she endured on her way to this planet, Kori is stubbornly compassionate and her strength seemingly boundless. Though Raven often finds herself wishing to wring her pretty neck, she doesn't deny that the bond she shares with Kori is profound and ever present. She's a light of a distant fire, forever burning to warm Raven in her perpetual darkness. She is more grateful for Kori's friendship than she'll ever let on.

And then there's Victor, naturally somewhere in the middle of everything. Raven empathizes with the struggle between identities, and with the resentment towards those responsible for his current isolation. In spite of it all, his warmth overcomes his metal exterior and he has never once failed to be Raven's rock when she needed nothing else. She's always wanted to return the favor but never knew how or knew she wasn't needed. Victor has Garfield, as Garfield has him, and she envied their friendship as much as she was an aggravated victim of it.

As she continued to watch him, Raven wondered what Garfield thought of their teammates, and of her, if he ever did such thinking on his downtime. He hardly ever needed the kind of lifting she did, and if and when he does, she's probably not his first choice for the task. Yet sometimes, there were these moments between them that came and went unannounced. In these rare instances, Raven feels as if she is looking at someone other than Garfield, or maybe looking at him anew. She's never been able to fully understand it and therefore tries not to dwell on it, finding it to be as distracting as it is trivial.

The night air picked up a slight chill that breezed across Raven, sending a wave of goosebumps down her body. Drawing in a deep breath, she softly leaped and hovered a few feet from the roof, taking in the city and its flickering impression across the bay.

When Garfield sensed Raven's movement a few dozen feet below, he dove and morphed back before landing on the roof. She didn't seem to take notice of him and gently hugged her cloak-less body as she stared out over the water. Rebel strands of black hair swam through the winds that carried trails of lavender and sage down to him, and Garfield embraced her scent warmly. At this moment, she looked otherworldly as the moonlight reflected softly off her silvery skin. When his eyes began tracing her spine, she glowered at him over her shoulder.

"What?" she cocked her brow and approached him. When her feet touched the roof, something stirred in her chest as she recognized the strangeness of the moment.

"Just enjoying the view in quiet contemplation," he gestured towards the city, "same as you." As the moment fled, she rolled her eyes and lifted up both cups.

"You should check on Cy after you put these away." She avoided looking at him directly when he took the cups from her hands. She didn't wait for a response before engulfing herself in black.  
Standing alone on the roof, Garfield faintly smiled down at the cups in his hands. All the hostile self-loathing he had carried up there with him had been eased by the subtle gesture. He scanned the horizon one last time before heading for the doors.

As he descended in the elevator he twirled the mug handles around his fingers, remembering her silhouette against the night sky. Though he knew she's always been a kind person, he couldn't help but feel bemused when her kindness found him. A couple years ago Raven wouldn't have given him the time of day, let alone some tea and a pep talk. Then again, she was much more reclusive before her father's most recent crack at the end of days. He almost broke her and she came back stronger and more open. And over the years Garfield has watched with a growing fascination. Where he once felt confusion and fear, he now experienced curiosity and admiration. He awkwardly desired her respect, more so than from the rest of the Titans. But he also desired her warm scent and the cool touch of her skin.

The elevator doors opened to the main floor, breaking Garfield's train of thought. The reemergence into the common room invited a feeling of dread back into his gut. Ideally, he wanted to avoid Dick and thought about ditching the mugs when he heard voices coming down the hall.

"You cannot be serious! Surely he has others–"

"I have to, Kori. I won't explain again–Garfield," Dick said as he and Kori entered the kitchen. "Can we talk?"

Suppressing his immediate reaction, Garfield set the mugs in the sink and faced them. Kori gave them both a disgruntled look before leaving the kitchen.

"So, listen," Dick cleared his throat, fighting the awkwardness that threatened to suffocate them both. Garfield was pleased to see the slight swelling under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. "I apologize, about earlier. It was unwarranted, and you didn't deserve that kind of criticism." Garfield remained quiet with his eyebrows raised and furrowed. "But sometimes Garfield, I swear you forget that we're not fifteen anymore. You need to take things more seriously. You need to step up if you-"

"Going somewhere?" Garfield interjected, ending the lecture with his arms folded across his chest.

"Gotham," Dick said following a defeated sigh. Garfield looked at him a moment longer before crossing the kitchen to grab a banana. "Won't be for long, I'm calling in someone to cushion while I'm there- hey," he called when Garfield began walking towards the hall, "are we cool?"

"As a cucumber," he said coolly and continued walking away.

"I didn't mean all that stuff about Raven, you know that."

"You should ice that." Garfield said through a mouthful of banana and disappeared around the corner.

[3]

Back in her candlelit sanctuary, Raven bowed her torso towards the ground with deep and controlled breaths. In the background, Debussy softly played. While she wasn't a particularly dedicated yogi, she found the practice to be soothing yet stimulating, especially during a lull period.

She felt a swelling pride from being able to comfort Garfield in his distress, in the little way that she could. Such tasks of emotional consoling once loomed over her as a great undertaking, but she's grown much surer of her ability to "be there" for her friends. Which felt nice, after years of having to be consoled by them.

Thinking of, Raven sensed an agitation looming from the hallway. Sure enough, she heard a soft knock on her door. Raven slowly straightened her spine, bringing her hands to her heart with a deep exhale. The soft knocks returned, and she walked over to activate the tall metal door.

A solemn alien stood on the other side of the threshold, her body wanting to fold in on itself. Her face was damp with tears and her bottom lip quivered subtly. She was a sad puppy with wide emerald eyes, red from irritation. Nothing about the way Kori stood before her was more pathetic than the way she felt. Raven absorbed her sadness deeply as it radiated across the doorway.

"Oh, Kori." Raven frowned and reached for her friend's hand. Fighting the urge to sob, Koriand'r took the Empath's hand and followed her into the room.

Kori sat in the same spot on Raven's bed she did just hours before when she was so blissful. Raven extinguished the candles and turned on her lamps before joining Kori on the bed.

"I can feel the drifting." Kori uttered, wiping her cheeks. "He must go to Gotham, he says. Though I strongly sense that his want to go is greater than his need to."

"Why is he going at all?" Raven asked gently.

"The Batman. When I suggested that he has others now to help him, he became defensive and rude." Though Raven grew more curious about his plans, she withheld her questions as to not interrogate her weeping friend. "I did not mean to make the insinuation that he was not needed. I only tried to express that perhaps we possessed the greater need for him-" Kori paused as guilt glossed over her eyes. "Perhaps it is I that possesses the greater need for him."

"Did you tell him this?" Raven asked.

"I was not given the chance," Kori said, her voice seeming more stable and her eyes more clearly. Then the silence was interrupted by a small growl emanating from the alien's stomach. "I do not believe we will be going out for the dinner after all." She said as she brought a hand to her belly. Both girls smiled, and Kori let out a small giggle.

"How about," Raven began and stood up, reaching her hands out to Kori. "You finish this session with me, and then we'll go out for the pizza?"

Kori's eyes lit up at this suggestion. "With the anchovies and the sauce of mustard?"

"On your half, sure." Raven grinned uneasily.

"That would be a most welcomed evening." Kori grabbed the Empath's hands and stood up. "Thank you, Friend Raven."

Raven simply nodded before snuffing out her lamps, re-igniting the candles, and turning Debussy back up.


	2. I Smelled Blood

At once, there was only darkness. Mindful of her breath, as it echoed like shadows, Raven stepped further into the obscure. A flickering light grew gradually before her, guiding her down a vast tunnel. She turned a corner to find the light's source, revealing hooded figures gathered in a hazy chamber. Their faces remained shrouded, yet Raven remembered them from a time long ago. A sudden flutter in her chest compelled her to scan the room for a certain cloak; one of opal veined with silver embroidery, but only a mass of indigo surrounded her.

They were unnervingly still for drawn moments, and then from the silence revolted a dismal hum. A guardian reached out toward her, and when Raven took a step back the ground fell away from her feet and she was churned into a cloud of sinister humming. When she felt a warm tickle trickle down her lips she hastily wiped her hand under her nose, but when she looked to assess the liquid her eyes would not focus. Starting in her fingertips and toes, her body began to gently pulsate with the humming. It slowly spread across her chest, crawled up her legs, rolled down her torso; when the vibrations collided, a numbing tingle rushed throughout her body. The pleasure of it led Raven to drop her arms and surrender to the darkness; the whirring gloom growling ever louder.

In a fit of dizziness, Raven jolted awake short of breath and glazed with sweat. Collecting herself, she switched on the lamp and scooted to the edge of her bed; the sheets beneath her damp and cool to the touch. The dream confused her, and the physiological reaction even more so. She closed her eyes heavily and took in a long breath, exhaling sharply from her mouth. As she did this, warm beads of crimson dribbled down her lips and splattered across her thighs. Like déjà vu Raven wiped her hand beneath her nose that became smeared with her blood.

"What the fuck," she whispered to herself as she frantically stood and clasped her nose tightly. When she couldn't find a towel or tissue anywhere in her room, she pulled her sweater over her face and drew a portal to the bathroom down the hall.

As the Tower slept, Garfield was beckoned to the kitchen for his second or third-midnight snack. The hallways were almost pitch black, yet he barely noticed the darkness. What bothered him was the quiet. He couldn't stand the quiet.

Dragging his feet behind him, he made his way through the maze of hallways and stairs until finally reaching the main floor. As soon as he stepped across the threshold into the first corridor, he was unnerved at the scent of blood. He picked up his feet and tracked the scent to Raven's door, but didn't hear any movement inside the room. He softly knocked, his ear pressed against the metal door. When silence answered him he knocked again, slightly louder. He was surprised that her door wasn't locked when he impassively pressed the button to her room, and more so when he found no sign of her inside. Garfield took small, cautious steps into Raven's dimly lit room, unsure of himself.

Despite the lingering trace of blood, without the evidence of it, Garfield became quickly distracted by Raven's things. Rarely was he ever permitted in her room, he couldn't help himself. His nose first led him to a brush of burnt sage that lay crisp in a large shell on her bookcase. As he walked up to it, its strong scent stung his nose. Behind it was a long row of leather-bound books, the spines engraved with letters of foreign languages he'd never know. At that moment, it astounded him just how much Raven reads. Notwithstanding all the times he'd seen her off in a corner somewhere with her face hidden in their pages, seeing all her books together on one mighty bookshelf was humbling; especially when he himself couldn't remember the last book he held, let alone read.

Garfield slowly pulled a book by its spine and held gently it in his hands. He expected it to be one of her spell books, but on the cover were large letters that spelled out "MACBETH". While he wasn't the most academically inclined Titan, he still knew the name "Shakespeare". When he opened the book to a random page, the format confused him. It was just a sequence of strange names next to strange sentences that were kind of English, but also not. He began to feel stupid for not being able to understand, and then he felt annoyed that he felt stupid. Books were stupid.

Garfield closed the book coolly and went to return it to its shelf when the sound of Raven's portal tore through the air behind him. A sudden panic rushed through him, causing him to drop the book and swing his body around to face her.

"What the hell Garfield?" Raven snapped and awkwardly tried to cover herself with a bloody sweater. "What are you doing in my room?!"

Garfield was at first without words, when Raven appeared in only shorts. "I-I'm sorry-" he stuttered with a stubborn smile. "Why are you walking around naked?"

"I'm not naked. What are you doing in here," she growled, after pulling a fresh sweater over her head. "in the middle of the night, touching my things?!" She bent down to pick up the book.

"I smelled blood," Garfield refaced her and eyed the bloody sweater on the ground. "I was just making sure you were okay."

"I'm fine," Raven shrugged. "Just a bloody nose."

Garfield sensed tension as he studied the way her eyebrows furrowed around her chakra. When she looked up at him, she felt the strangeness again. His attention made her uncomfortable; a moment of vulnerability from which she wished to recede.

"What's up, Rae?" He asked softly and took a step closer to her. In this movement, his smell rushed over her, and a distantly familiar tingle faintly scratched her insides.

"Nothing." She mumbled defensively and walked around him to put the book back on its shelf. "Fancy yourself a late night read?"

"Yeah, maybe if it was readable. It's not even a book."

"You're right, it's a play." When she looked back at him she was met with confusion. "It was meant to be acted out."

"Like on TV?" Garfield asked casually, not trying to sound too interested.

"Like on stage," Raven softly smiled, quietly amused by the thought of Beast Boy reading Shakespeare. "You could borrow it if you want."

"I'm good." He laughed and walked over to a table near the window, where a vast array of cards and crystals were spread. "This may surprise you but, I'm not much of a reader." He began picking up random crystals to examine. "And even if I was, that looked like a bunch of nonsense."

"It's in early modern-"

"It's nonsense."

"Well like I said," Raven rolled her eyes and sat down on her bed. "It's meant to be acted out, better heard aloud than read."

"You could read it to me? So, you know, I could hear it, aloud." Garfield shot her a strange smile, one that almost made her blush.

"What are you even doing up?" she asked quickly to escape the awkwardness.

"I was hungry." Garfield shrugged while setting a crystal back down. "Still am." He then barely opened her curtain, surprised to see the soft glow of dusk against a dark and jagged cityscape. "And would you look at that," he threw both curtains open. "looks like it's time for breakfast."

"Is it now?" Raven said unenthusiastically.

"Now that you're decent, would you like to join me for some grains and tofu?" Garfield grinned and held out his hand. Her eyes darted from his dumb grin to his dumb hand and her lips betrayed her.

"If you mean runny eggs and extra crispy bacon, then maybe."

Garfield dropped his hand and walked out of her room. After a second passed his head popped back in. "Are you coming?"

Raven rolled her eyes and stood. When he disappeared down the hallway again, she found herself biting an insuppressible smile; the droll humming of her dreams seemingly faint and far away.


	3. Engage in the Punching of Things

**[1]**

 _With an obnoxious howl that nearly blew out Cyborg's speakers, Garfield vaulted from the couch, chucking the game console to the ground. Victor's attention was then ripped from the hairy wires of his forearm, as his eye zoomed and focused on the Titans across the common room._

 _"God damn it," Dick grumbled, his game console also finding its way towards the floor._

 _"That's, what, the fourth round?" Garfield smugly scratched his head. "Yeah, fourth round and uh, you're still my bitch Robby!"_

 _"Shut the fuck up Logan."_

 _"Oh damn," Victor's breath was loud and heavy through the mic._

 _"Oh, what's wrong Dickie? Your booty a little sore?" Garfield taunted, inciting Robin to his feet._

 _"You're such a child." Dick spat, squaring up to his teammate._

 _"Yeah, I'm the child." Garfield laughed, mockingly pointing at himself. "Look at you all up tight over losing a video game."_

 _"You're right, not a child," Dick smirked, the space between their faces lessening, "more of a joke."_

 _"Oh okay," Garfield jeered, "what's your problem, dude?"_

 _"Alright guys-"_

Victor's attempt at an interjection overlapped the outlying sound of Dick's voice as he blithely prodded Garfield's shoulder.

 _"_ _-playing video games the rest of your life, pulling off the bare minimum for anyone!"_

 _"Dude you wanted to play-"_

 _"Don't you get tired of it?"_

 _"Robin-" Vic's interruptions were barely noticed._

 _"Of what?!" Garfield yelled. "What the hell are you on about?"_

 _"Being a joke?! After all these years I have to think it's on purpose. Your powers might as well be a party trick. And you wonder why she's never taken you seriously."_

 _A dramatic beat passed in silence until Garfield uttered a cool, "Don't." Dick gave no indication of remorse, or of backing down._

 _"No seriously," Dick persisted, although his voice had eased slightly. "Why would she Garfield? All this time and you're somehow still the same naïve and juvenile little shit you were when we took you in. You don't take anything seriously, can't get through a conversation without trying to be funny, can barely can hold your own in a fight without one of us bailing you out…you made it almost too easy for Terra to infiltrate and nearly destroy everything we've-"_

 _"Dick, that's enough." Victor said, his voice vexed, yet firm._

 _"No Victor!" Dick tore his eyes from Garfield to Cyborg. A fuming Garfield barred his teeth and gripped Dick tightly by the shoulders. "He needs to hear-"_

 _The impact of Garfield's forehead sent Dick stumbling backwards, his hands clasped tightly over his face. Only a couple of seconds passed before he dropped his hands, revealing small streams of blood seeping from both nostrils. Dick collected his balance before kicking the coffee table and lunging after Garfield._

Victor had finally stood to physically intervene, and so he paused the recording. With her wide emerald eyes, Kori looked up wondrously up at her friend and just said, "Oh my."

"'Oh my' indeed." Vic sighed.

"But what does this mean?" she asked, standing from the stool and walking over to Vic's window, which was more a wall of glass that overlooked the bay. The morning sun was reaching for noon, its rays twinkling down across the waves below.

"Grayson's been on something else." He said as he popped open the panel covering his forearm. "I was hoping you'd know."

"Not exactly." Kori said as she stared out over the water. "Though I have the strong suspicion that Dick will leave for Gotham and will not return for a long time," she glanced back at Victor with a look of exhaustion, a silent indication of her wish to avoid the subject, "but the meaning for which I asked was in regard to Garfield. Richard belittled the respect he desires from a her, to which Garfield had a response most violent."

"Yeah," Victor agreed slowly, unsure he followed the language.

"Raven?" Kori's voice cracked with an almost buoyant tone. Victor only smirked, with his eyes fixed on a wire that he gently towed with his plyers. "So, this means, that," a wild grin grew on the alien's face; her wide teeth almost blinding.

"Yeah." He confirmed, shaking his head in secret adoration of Kori's candidness. "He doesn't talk about it, but it seems more obvious every day. Dude's got a bit of demon fever."

"That is the sweetest." She said with sincerity, though a sadness drained expression from her face. After drawn out moments of silence, aside from the quiet sound of metal poking metal, she spoke again. "Do you think Cyborg, that one day soon, there will be other Titans?"

"There are already other Titans, Kori."

"I mean to ask if there will be new Titans West, living in our Tower and we will be gone, I mean, no longer Titans."

"Honestly," Victor stopped and thought for a moment. "I can't say I haven't thought about it." This seemed to depress Kori, who hugged herself and looked back out his window. "But we'll always be Titans, Star. No matter if were spread across the country or the planet or the galaxy, in your case."

Kori giggled and shook her head. "I do not possess the intention to leave Earth anytime soon."

"Good. We need you."

"Thank you, friend Victor." Koriand'r smiled warmly and placed a hand on his shoulder. Victor returned the sentiment and the alien left him in the silence of his room.

Out in the hallway, Kori abruptly paused at the sight of Dick Grayson. He offered a sympathetic look through swollen eyes as well as an awkward grin. "Hey." Initially her eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened, but then her expression relaxed. When she attempted to pass him, his hand gently tugged on hers. "Kori, please."

"What is it that you would desire of me?" she asked aggressively.

"To understand." Dick said softly, trying to lessen the gap between them. Kori accepted this reluctantly. "It's family."

"Are we not also family?" Kori snapped as a thin gloss threatened her eyes.

"Everything I am is because-"

"Yes, you are 'indebted to him, Robin is nothing without the Batman, Dick is nothing without Bruce', you have said this over and again." Kori rolled her eyes and stalked away. Dick followed closely behind her, keeping his voice down.

"Then why can't you understand why I have to do this?"

"Because it is the bullspit!" Kori bellowed, prodding his shoulder. Dick paused and barely repressed a grin.

"What?" he stifled a laugh. Kori didn't seem to notice his shift in demeanor.

"You are not being honest, Richard. It is not that he needs you it is that you want to go, as in you no longer desire to be here. You know it is the truth!"

"Koriand'r." Dick gently touched her shoulders, which she quickly shook off. "I need you to trust my reasons. I promise that I will come back; I will come back to you."

Kori remained still as Dick dared to bring a hand to her cheek, cupping it lightly. Believing in her submission, he brought up his other hand and pulled her face towards his, kissing her softly. He pulled away and smiled warmly at the alien.

"No." She gently pulled his hands from her face and stepped away from him. "You may come back to the Titans, like you say, but you may not come back to me."

As Dick's eyes glazed over her, she left him.

 **[2]**

With a full belly, Garfield slid himself down onto the couch and sighed in contentment. In the kitchen, Raven had collected their dirty dishes and placed them in the sink. She shot an annoyed glance over to the Changeling who had apparently assumed she'd wash all of his dishes. She cleared her throat and glared his way.

He flashed a cheeky smile, "What's up buttercup?"

She smiled and blinked expectantly. "Wash what you used. I am not your maid." Garfield sighed again and groaned as he stood back up. He continued to groan all the way back to the kitchen. Raven smirked as she rinsed out a bowl of what had been full of yogurt, berries, and granola.

"Wait," Garfield said when he took inventory of the dirty plates, pans, and utensils that she had piled up for him. "I used all of it."

She smirked wider. "Oh, weird."

"Rae…" He whined. "you could have these done in like two seconds."

"On the contrary, my powers won't be loaned for domestic chores." Raven scoffed and sipped her lukewarm chai tea. With a sly grin, ivory seeped into her eyes as she held her mug with both hands. Once her cup began to steam, her eyes dimmed to their normal lilac and she winked at him.

"Cute." Garfield shook his head and turned the faucet to begin washing the dishes. Smugly, Raven strolled through the common room to stand before the windows.

The sky was brightening with the rising sun, stripping the shadows of night from the city. Down below across the Tower grounds, the emerald grasses were speckled with the crimson and gold of fallen leaves. It was late November, she then recalled, noticing how significantly the days have blurred together. The bay weather always treated Raven with a fresh, salty breeze, as the seasons rarely ever distinguished themselves from one another.

Raven slid open the glass panoramic doors and stepped out on the balcony, leaving it open behind her. Scent trails of Garfield's tofu and toast followed her out, scattering in the chilly autumn air. She inhaled it deeply, exhaling with warm breath that swelled from her lips. Raven didn't mind the cold, even as it nipped at her bare legs and face. As she drank her tea, she could feel it trickle down her esophagus and warm her from the inside, even as her lungs expanded with the crisp morning.

Once he turned the faucet off and the steam from the sink dissipated, Garfield felt a small chill against his skin. He looked across the room at the open door, and then through the glass at Raven. Aside from the subtle swell of her hair in the breeze, she stood so statically in her hoodie and shorts. He imagined himself walking out onto the balcony and wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind, her sweet scent filling his nostrils and stirring in his chest. He imagined asking her to come inside and lay next to him on the couch, so that he may warm her up. He imagined falling asleep with her in his arms and waking up to her kiss. He's imagined such things, but soon after he then imagines her snubbing him with the assumption that he was trying to be funny. Dick's words rang in his ears, _why should she take you seriously?_

As her heavy eyes swept across her horizon of skyscrapers, Raven acknowledged her grogginess. Even though her dream felt incredibly short, its physical vividness still lingered in her chest. She knew where it was, recognizing from her childhood the dark tunnels beneath The Temple Azarath. She knew the monks, even with their faces cloaked in darkness. She remembered searching the crowd for her mother, as she would when she was a child. None of those details felt strange in any way, as she has dreamt many times of her memories of Azarath. When she was younger, if the stars proved ideal, she would conjure such dreams just to see her mother when she felt homesick. This wasn't like that, however. The deafening humming and the strange pleasure it caused her. It seemed every nerve in her body was elated with waves of sensations with which she wasn't familiar. The memory almost felt manipulated.

"Excuse me," Garfield's voice shook her from her thoughts, causing Raven's heart to jump in her chest. But if he startled her, she gave nothing away as she calmly hinged her head towards him. He leaned against the door's threshold, his arms folded against his chest. "You're letting all of the heat out."

Raven rolled her eyes back towards the view. "You could put a shirt on if you're cold."

"I don't mind it," Garfield stepped out onto the balcony and closed the door behind him. "I run hot. See?" He grabbed her free hand and held the back of it to his cheek; his intense warmth shrouded her fingertips and seeped to her core. She gave him an unenthused raise of the eyebrows and dropped her hand. Raven then suddenly recalled their fight.

"Have you talked to Richard?" Raven asked. Garfield responded with a small grunt. "Is that a yes?"

"Yeah, I saw him last night." Garfield leaned against the balcony's railings, his eyes surveying the Tower grounds. "He's leaving."

"Did you kiss and make up?" He only rolled his eyes. "Did you?"

"He might have apologized."

"Garfield."

"Raven."

"You blew him off?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" He asserted in a strange, almost British accent.

"You're ridiculous." Raven grinned, sipping the last of her tea. "I mean what could he have possibly said to -"

"You weren't there," Garfield glared up at her. "yeah he said he was sorry, but I'm still allowed to be annoyed with him."

"Fine." Raven sighed. "But I think it's worth talking it out before he's not here anymore."

"Men don't work like that, Rae," Garfield smirked and stood upright, with his hands still on the railing. "Since when do you care so much?"

"I just like all my boys to get along." Raven lightly chuckled as she leaned over onto the railing beside him. "We're family." Garfield jokingly gagged and shot her a doubtful look, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Such a soppy demon you are."

Raven just scoffed and then shrugged. "I must be tired."

"It suits you." Garfield smiled, and she twisted her face at him. He chuckled lightly before stealing the empty mug from her hand. "Come on."

Raven followed the Changeling back inside and sat next to him on the couch. As Garfield turned the TV on, Raven nestled herself amongst the couch cushions and pillows. She revealed in the coziness of her nest as her eyes grew heavier, so she forced herself upright against the back of the couch.

Garfield seemed to be mindlessly changing channels as he too situated himself comfortably against the couch. He passed one that made his ears perk slightly, and he hastily flipped back to find it. It was an older film, colorless with muffled voiceovers that Raven had never seen before, and she was frankly surprised that Garfield knew it. He didn't strike her as a classic film enthusiast.

"I remember this movie," Garfield mumbled pensively when he felt Raven's curious eyes on him. "from when I was a kid." Raven sensed a raw silence from him, and she knew she shouldn't probe the subject. It was strange to remember the pain he carries when he's usually such a buoyant force. Yet her curiosity became her.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, some movie my mom loved." His voice was quiet and his eyes remained fixed on the screen. "Or it was the only tape we had but she watched it all the time." Raven watched his face has a small smile grew across his lips. "We had this tiny little box…the screen couldn't have been bigger than my head. We'd huddle up in front of it, under some musky blankets and watch it."

"That sounds nice, Gar," Raven said softly.

"I remember there's this scene where he's dancing with this woman, and my mom would sometimes pull my dad up to dance with her. He'd put on a front but I know he liked it too." Raven stayed quiet and watched Garfield as she sensed his melancholy, but his smile was still there. She reached over and touched his arm. Her touch made him remember himself and he glanced over with the slightest luster in his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," Raven took her hand away. "You never talk about your parents."

"Neither do you." He looked away and shrugged. "I don't think I have to explain."

"You don't." Raven agreed but kept watching him. There was a gravity to him that she couldn't look away from. It wasn't fascination as much as it was admiration, maybe. Despite their drastically different childhoods, their pain was the same. All of the Titans shared in it to an extent. Raven never had a chance at the normalcy Garfield was so close to, but that doesn't make her pain any greater or less. Just different. His trauma stays with him, as does hers. Raven had the sudden urge to be next to him. To both of their surprise, she leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. This movement startled him, but he didn't dare move.

The soft static of the actors' voices began lulling Raven as her eyelids began fluttering and Garfield felt her head growing heavier against his shoulder. Carefully, he placed a pillow on his lap and guided her head towards it. Raven barely noticed this as she snuggled comfortably against him. Garfield's fingers gently swept the hair from Raven's face and tucked it behind her ear. This was the last thing Raven noted before falling asleep.

 **[3]**

Victor tried to play it cool when Richard walked through his doors, emanating hell itself with his swollen face and glazed eyes. Despite having heard everything that had just transpired outside his walls, he didn't want to make the guy feel awkward. When he looked up at Richard, he nodded before shutting his forearm latch.

"Finally fixed it?" Richard asked after one sharp cough to clear his throat.

"Give me something to shoot at," Victor shook his arm lightly before standing to put his tools away, "and we shall see."

"Well, I'd give you a target, but you might have to get in line to shoot at me."

Vic laughed. "Oh, come on now Robby, self-pity isn't your style."

"I know." Dick carefully rubbed his forehead, avoiding the giant bruise in the middle of his face. "I'm sorry, Vic. I don't know why I lost it on him like that."

"Yeah, you do." Victor sat back down in his chair swung around towards his monitor screen. "You know can be a real dick sometimes Dick, but you hit a wall yesterday and I've been watching you run at it for weeks. It's okay, man."

"What is?" Dick asked carefully.

"Wanting to go alone." Victor looked up at Richard from his screen and sighed. "We're family, right? So you'll always be a part of that. But you have to sit down and realize we'll be okay without you. You're getting hung up on this idea that you are responsible for us, but you're not. Don't come at us like that, come at B like you're better than him because yesterday was messed up. If you want to leave, leave, but don't do it like that. With bad blood. Do you get what I'm saying?" Richard softly nodded his head, with his eyes fixed on the ground. "Alright then, let's call that sexy ass honey bee." Richard chuckled lightly and stood behind Vic, leaning against the back of his chair. As the monitor rang, Dick put one hand on Vic's shoulder.

"Thanks, Vic."

"Yeah, okay Rob." Victor shrugged his hand off and laughed. Karen Beecher's face appeared on the monitor.

 _"Hello, Titans."_ She smiled, pearly whites stretching across the screen.

"Hello, Miss Karen." Victor grinned excitedly. "How are you doing on this fine morning?"

 _"Evening here,"_ Karen raised an eyebrow at her monitor. " _And I'm alright, Victor. How are you?_ "

"Better now that I'm seeing that sweet delicious smile."

"Alright, tone it down Vic." Richard scooted Victor away from the center of the monitor. "Hey, Karen."

"Hi _, Richard_." Karen giggled. " _Roy said you'd be in Gotham by now_."

"Soon enough. Thank you again for agreeing to come out here."

" _I could use some of that west coast shine in my life. Snow is nice and all, but I've forgotten what the sun looks like._ "

"Just look in the mirror darling." Victor chimed in and to Richard's surprise, Karen laughed. But he wasn't convinced it wasn't a pity laugh.

"You sure you still want to? I'll understand if you back out." Richard grinned

" _Is that Dick Grayson_?" a muffled male voice echoed from the speakers. " _Is that the Boy Wonder I hear? As I live and breathe?_ "

"Hello, Roy." Richard sneered. "And it's Man Wonder now if you hadn't heard."

" _It sure is_. _What's up Tin Man_?" Roy Harper peeked into the webcam, grinning madly.

"What's good Ginger Spice? When you movin' in?"

" _Yesterday man, can't wait to see my favorite Titans. And Grayson too_."

"Ha Ha still got it," Richard grumbled. "I was just thanking Karen for coming out, I appreciate you too however much it pains me."

" _Aw Dickie, does this mean you'll be gracing us with your company before you fly back home to Batdaddy_?"

"You'd love that wouldn't you?"

" _You know it_."

" _Okay boys,_ " Karen rolled her eyes towards Roy. " _Don't you have packing to do or something?_ " Roy laughed and began walking away.

" _See you soon Vic, tune the toys up_."

"You got it Speedy!" Victor yelled and caught an eye roll from Dick.

" _I better go too. We'll be heading out soon._ "

"Well, it was good to see you, Karen. Safe traveling out here, okay."

" _You too Richard. Hope everything works out_." Karen smiled warmly and glanced at Vic. " _See you soon, Victor._ "

"Can hardly wait, honeybee."

Richard shook his head and ended the call. "Dude."

"What?"

"You are so aggressive." Richard laughed at Victor's smug grin.

"Hey now, let me worry about me and you just do you, okay Rob?" Vic said but soon felt the pang of awkwardness when Richard's face withered. Victor sighed and twisted his face. "I'm sorry, man." Richard eyed Victor with the realization that he had heard everything and glanced from the hallway where Kori had just left him.

"I can't blame her I guess." He shrugged. Vic remained silent and wished he hadn't finished fixing his arm. "But she acts like I don't care. I do."

"She knows."

"I was going to wait to leave, but now…I don't know. Garfield's still angry."

"He'll be fine," Victor said and stood up and shook Robin's hand. "Do what you gotta do, Rick." Richard sighed and gave his friend a tight-lipped grin before leaving Victor's room.

 **[4]**

Koriand'r felt queasy as the elevator ascended through the Tower and she hugged her arms close to her torso. It occurred to her that the last thing she ate was the pizza from last night, but she knew it wasn't a food-related illness that sickened her. Maybe she had just acted rashly, but he made it clear that nothing she could say would sway him otherwise. She wasn't mastered in the arts of Earthly bonding between mates but she understood the value of respect, for which he apparently had none for her. Or for any of his friends. His behavior towards her or Garfield would not stand. That much she was sure of.

Stepping out of the elevator, Kori immediately noticed Garfield's head wilting back against the couch. He slept as the television played a soapy program, with quiet, staticky music playing through the speakers. She quietly walked over to the couch, and the sight of Raven asleep on his lap stopped her where she stood. She remembered what Victor had just told her and her heart swelled in her chest. How had she not realized the love between her two friends before? Seeing them now felt so inherent, both asleep together, peaceful and sweet. Kori couldn't help but let out the smallest gasp of excitement for Garfield, who began stirring from his sleep.

His eyes flickered to combat the intrusive light shining in from the windows before they finally landed on Kori. She stood still, with wide eyes and her hands covering her mouth.

"I'm sorry Garfield." She whispered. "I did not mean to wake you from your most adorable slumber." Garfield furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before remembering himself, and the woman snuggled against him still asleep. His arm had been wrapped under hers with his hand on her belly. Blood rushed to his cheeks and he eyed Kori suspiciously. She pursed her lower lip at him and he shook his head bashfully. Carefully, he slid his arm from out under Raven's and rubbed his eyes.

"What time is it?" He whispered hoarsely and peered outside. The sun was threatening to drop low enough to glare through the windows.

"It is after the noon, I believe." Kori sat on the edge of the couch, and Raven lightly shifted her body before rolling onto her back. Kori and Garfield both held their breath as she squirmed. As Raven let out a soft sigh of gibberish, her hands found and wrapped around Garfield's and she nestled them to her chest. Kori hid her beaming face behind her eyes, and Garfield could barely look up at her.

"So, who told you?" Garfield softly murmured without taking his eyes off of his and Raven's hands, wanting to caress his thumb along her fingers.

"No one," she smirked. "Told me what?" Garfield frowned and Kori gave an apologetic look. "I viewed Victor's logs from yesterday. Please do not be angry with him." He shook his head and placed a finger over his lips. Kori softened her voice. "I'm sorry for the things that Richard said to you. I hope you do not believe it. He is not in the right head." Garfield looked up at her and detected the sorrow deeply embedded in her blank expression as she stared at the ground.

"You okay, Star?"

"No," she looked up at him and smiled, "I will be, though. I am most thankful for my friends."

Garfield returned her smile. "Wanna go hit things?" Kori looked aghast at first, but her lips soon spread into a mischievous smile.

"I would very much like to engage in the punching of things, Garfield."

"I'll meet you downstairs." Kori bubbled and stood up from the couch. Garfield watched as she disappeared into the hallway.

Alone again, his eyes draped across Raven's body; from her feet tucked beneath a cushion at the other end of the couch to her head on his lap. He began to appreciate how much skin was exposed right now, the soft natural lights from the windows gleaming off of her milky skin. Her hoodie had risen from her shifting, revealing her midriff almost in full. Her hip bones protruded from the top of her shorts. Garfield wished to lightly run his finger across them and up the valleys of her rib cage. He remembered seeing her in the dim lights of her room that morning, a quick flash of her bare breasts before she turned around. With his hand currently rested against her breastbone, his thoughts wandered just beneath her hoodie. He conceived the feel of her breast in his palm, fingering her dark, bumpy nipple between his fingers. He imagined tracing them down her soft torso and under the rim of her shorts, spreading and caressing between her lips and the moans she'd emote in response to his touch.

And to his horror, he felt himself begin to stiffen beneath the pillow that held her head. In a subtle panic, he ripped his hand from hers but the froze when she began waking up. Raven's eyes fluttered opened and landed on Garfield's. She grumbled and rubbed her eyes briefly before quickly sitting straight up in a moment of recollection. Garfield watched as her hands searched her face, almost as if to check to make sure it was her body she was in. What Raven was really doing was making sure she hadn't woken up in a cold sweat with blood dripping down her nose.

"What time is it?" She hoarsely asked as she swung her legs onto the floor.

"Afternoonish, apparently." Garfield sighed in relief, though his heart quietly thumped in his chest. He watched Raven curiously as she held her head in her palms, stroking her temple with her thumbs. "You okay there, bud?" Raven tilted her head slightly to look at him, but the light coming in from the windows was too harsh on her eyes.

"Yes, just a headache." She mumbled and stood up slowly. Her body felt heavy and constricted so she slowly raised her arms and attempted to stretch her back out. "I feel stiff." She said through a yawn. Garfield bit his smirking lip and only nodded, averting his eyes away from her and fixing them on the unarousing carpet. "Where is everyone?"

"Kori just woke me up, We're going to the 4th floor," Garfield answered folding his hands on the pillow. He then thought of transforming into a bird, she probably wouldn't think anything of it.

"Ugh," Raven groaned and slowly walked over to the kitchen. "Please tell me Grayson didn't call for an impromptu going away training exercise."

Garifled lightly laughed, "No, Kori just needs to work out her frustrations." Raven didn't respond as she downed a glass of water. When she was finished she just put the glass down and stared blankly ahead as flashes of her dream ran past her eyes. Garifled noticed and took this moment to subtly tuck himself beneath the elastic waistband of his boxers before standing up from the couch. He walked over to the windows and eyed the water with inspiration before sliding open the glass doors. His movement caught Raven's attention and she eyed him almost accusingly, for she remembered his presence in her dream. She almost felt like asking him what he was doing there, before realizing how ridiculous that would sound. The rushing bay breeze intruded passed Garfield, and he welcomed the salty air into his lungs. "I think I"ll go for a swim." He glanced back at Raven who only nodded with a faint smile on her lips. He then climbed onto the railing before diving off. Raven walked over to the windows and slid the door shut, eyeing a small green speck growing ever smaller as it nears the sparkling water.


	4. A Pair of Bloodstone Eyes

**[1]**

Shrouded in an immense darkness, her mother's voice danced around Raven's ears. "Come, Raven", she beckoned, her echoes carving corridors around Raven as she obeyed. Her stride felt wide and clumsy, and so she lifted herself from the ground entirely. Even still, she drifted inelegantly, uncertainly. Her eyes darted from her bare feet that hung in the air like the inanimate legs of a doll to the dull flare of light ahead. Abiding the voice, she trailed on cautiously; the light growing ever brighter as she approached. "Come, Raven." Finally, the voice acquainted her with a sense of home as Raven emerged through a threshold into the Chamber of Ancients. Bathed in moonlight, the damp stone walls of the bared sanctum glistened in the mists of a passing rain. Beside to her mother, cloaked guardians assembled around a plinth slab. Raven's small feet kissed the cold, porous stone beneath them.

"To me, love." Arella held her hand out to Raven who submitted, slowly wrapping her hand around her mother's and walked further into the chamber. Raven nervously raked her mother's face for assurance, but only felt a distance. After she led Raven to the stone plinth, she withdrew Raven's hood from her head; her mane of ebony gleamed beneath the pale of Azarath's moons.

A guardian handed Arella an ampule of dark substance, which she then emptied into her palm. With her fore and middle fingers, Arella traced along Raven's forehead and down her nose and chin. Raven squirmed slightly, calming only after her mother's directive. Arella traded the empty flask for a washcloth, wiping the soot from her hands before joining hooded guardians around the plinth. Raven felt hands reach from behind to the front clasp of her cloak. They pulled the fabric from her shoulder, exposing her body to the beams of moonlight. Raven felt uneasy, her skin chilled against the damp air. A faceless monk gestured her onto the slab and she slowly lay her naked body against the cold marble. They began in incantation and Raven's eyes searched desperately for her mothers, only to find that Arella was longer with her. Where her mother once stood was a stranger, a woman with eyes of deep vermillion that seared through to Raven's core. A sudden panic rose in her chest as a wretched humming battered her ears. The guardian's voices became mere static as the humming grew louder and louder until a warm hand slithered onto the center of her chest. She beheld a pair of eyes smiling down at her like emerald pools shimmering in the sunlight, and a serenity washed over her into silence. He hushed her worry and led her to a deeper sleep, her eyes closed to a warmer obscurity.

When she opened them again, Raven knew she was awake. A pair of eyes like emerald pools gazed down at her, as she remembered herself.

Her head rushed with blood as she sat up on the couch, her vision spotty and her body sore. The familiar faint ringing in her ears sent Raven on a flustered mission to make sure her nose was free of blood and her skin of moisture. Garfield's body sat stiffly behind her, and she heard an indistinct thudding in his chest. Her sudden jolt into consciousness must have scared him.

Raven sat up straight with her feet on the floor, but her head pulsated with pressure. "What time is it?"

"Afternoonish, apparently…you okay there, bud?"

"Yeah, just a headache." She grumbled and attempted to stand. Her body felt like that of a crinkled contortionist whose limbs went numb from neglect. She wondered if Garfield would buy the idea of her coming down with a cold. Her human half could be prey to such things, after all.

With a glance towards the window's, she could tell the day had grown. "Where is everyone?" Garfield only mentioned Koriand'r, and then something about the fourth floor. The only use of that floor was to train in team strategy or to exercise, and the idea of either made Raven feel sick. Her dry gorge of throat bit as she spoke and the concept of water felt revolutionary. Raven made her way across the common room into the kitchen and fixed a glass of water. She didn't gather what Garfield had said to her as she focused on clearing the static mess inside her head. Even as the water drenched her gullet like a waterfall gushing into a droughted basin, she acknowledged the concerning veracity of her dream.

It wasn't really a dream, but a memory. She was certain. She remembered the ritual quite vividly as played out in her sleep. The memory flashed across her mind like damaged film; the moonlit chamber, her mother's fingers marking her skin with soot, faceless monks and their indigo cloaks and their chanting. But what she couldn't shake was the unfamiliar, that which was not of her memory. Namely the burning eyes of the strange woman that triggered the awful and reoccurring humming that shook her from her sleep the night before. But also, the man with his warm touch and his lulling green eyes.

Raven's attention was stolen as Garfield opened the sliding glass doors across the room, and it was then when she recognized whose eyes they were. But why she couldn't grasp. Or what that memory was from. As much she could comb through her retention, she couldn't remember what that ritual was for, or really what happened after. In fact, Raven couldn't remember ever thinking about that night afterward. But why his eyes? And who was the woman who stood in her mother's place?

"I think I'll go for a swim." Garfield's called out, his eyes unknowingly quieting her anxious thoughts. Raven nodded in acknowledgment, without words to offer. She watched as he climbed onto the balcony and dove out of sight, leaving the glass doors wide open behind him. A saline breeze drifted towards Raven, along with the slight chill of autumn air. She crossed the room once more to close the doors, watching his small green shape fall towards the water. Alone with the muffled ringing in her ears, Raven wondered again. How possible would it be for her subconscious to be manipulating her as she slept? What kind of ceremony was it, anyway? Her mother wiping dirt on her face while she lay naked on a stone slab. What spell could require such circumstances? A spell like that wouldn't be found in any of her books. Before she could figure out what book she'd need, she'd have to relive the memory.

Raven could smell the moist earth of damp stone. That much, she knew, made it real. That alone might get her there.

 **[2]**

Raven waved all her curtains closed, banishing any natural light from her room. With all other lights extinguished she lit a solitary candle and one spear of incense on her altar. Despite the lingering soreness of her back, she settled on the floor with her legs tucked and her hands resting on her knees. She found stillness as she breathed, and Raven focused on the petrichor of her memory. She conceived the glow of the three moons above and the feel of the rough, wet stone beneath her. The harder she focused on the details her senses gathered, the deeper she fell into a distinctive state, farther from the safe shadows of her room in the Tower. She heard her mother's voice calling her name, and soon Raven was back in the chamber. Yet a young Raven stood before her, gripping a lantern nervously.

A guardian with a crimson robe reached out for her lantern, which Raven surrendered before cowering closer to her mother. The guardians began dousing all other lanterns in the chamber, and young Raven peered around anxiously.

"I'm frightened." The girl's lips slightly trembled. Her mother just solemnly bowed her head.

"Be brave." Arella's voice was firm. "It will not take long. You won't remember."

"I don't understand."

"You need not understand, child." The crimson guardian spoke. Nothing but this woman's voice was familiar to Raven, and her younger self eyed her mother fearfully. Arella kept her head bowed, controlling her own unease. "Let us begin."

As Raven watched her mother draw dusty figures across her daughter's face, a guardian in jade stood behind the girl. They reached over and unclasped her cloak before pulling it from her bony shoulders. Young Raven wore a light sleeveless dress, luminescent in the moonlight. Raven spotted a dark stain on the girl's frock, just below her bottom's curve. Raven felt an abrupt pang of shame as she remembered; the stain was from her first blood. She was only ten years old, and she would not have another one.

Another frock was presented, and young Raven was instructed to change beneath the cover of her mother's opal cloak. Raven remembered the mortification of being asked to change from her soiled dress, but she must be pure for this service under the waning crescents. Once in her new frock, young Raven climbed onto the stone table, still a bit damp from an earlier rain. Four guardians surrounded the table and began chanting in unison, her mother stood stoically aside but still remained close. Raven could only decipher a few of the words they spoke, and watched as her younger self began seizing against the stone. Her mother reached her hand and held the back of the girls head to keep her from bashing it against the table. She slid her other hand to the center of the girl's chest until her body relaxed again.

At once, all in the chamber were hushed with their eyes fixed on the girl who now hovered above the stone. The woman in the crimson cloak spoke the words clearly, "One portal, one door. No passage other, no more." The other guardians began repeating these words as the girl's body was enveloped in a dark shade. The light of the moons swathed around this shade, and the glow from the fusion about blinded Raven. She looked away to defend her eyes from the light, and Raven noticed a large black bird on the shoulder of a shadow across the chamber. The shadow had sinister eyes that glowered at her. However, in a blink, the shadow was gone, and Raven watched as the large bird took flight, cawing madly in the distance. Suddenly, a distinct drumming throbbed in her ears and Raven's eyes peeled open to the stillness of her room.

Across a stretch of ethereal sky, a lone crow descended towards a colossal chasm of celestial waters. As the bird submerged into its deep shadows, a pair of bloodstone eyes opened to this plane.

 **[3]**

Silence laid thickly across her room as her eyes slowly peered around to every corner. Raven heard only her breath swell in and out of her lungs and she almost felt dizzy. A small trace of blood pooled at the bottom of her nostril before dripping delicately onto her bottom lip. She wiped it off with the edge of her sleeve and slowly stood up. She continued to peer around her room, stepping cautiously to her window. There was no sign of life around; even her roommates weren't close enough to sense. Yet, Raven couldn't shake the strangest feeling that she wasn't alone.

Outside her window, bay winds blustered westward as large waves crashed violently against the shoreline below. The dark water seemed to have drained all color from the skies above and Raven knew a generous storm was coming. She reached to pull her curtains shut, but a small speck in the distance caught her eye. Its great black wings extended broadly, balancing on the winds that carried it closer. Raven's eyes followed the lone crow as it soared above the tower and before disappearing from view. A sudden panic that she would not reason with sent her across the room and out in the hallway. She ran through the kitchen, across the common room and nearly broke through the glass doors. Out on the balcony she stood at the edge, desperately searching upwards for a bird that would not show itself. Yet somewhere in the husky gusts of winds she swore she heard the faintest cawing coming from above.

Quickly, Raven drew a portal and stepped through, her bare feet landing on the rough felt of the tower's roof. Though she could barely see through the tuffs of her rebel hair swirling around with the wind, she began to hear the distant cawing that stirred her attention. She desperately turned her head in each direction it led her but could see nothing but chaotic strands of black hair against darkening grey skies. With a deep inhale, she stilled herself. The wind howled around her, singing a frantic song of the storms to come, and Raven heeded closely. The distant cawing became more focused and she only listened.

As the howling simmered to a whisper, every hair on Raven's body stood tall and tingly. Her long black hair rose up gracefully as if she were descended in water, and a warm chill ran down her spine. When she finally opened her eyes, they fell on a large black crow perched on the edge of the tower. Raven studied the bird closely, determining nothing special about it except for its size. She went to approach the where the bird sat but found herself unable to move. She opened her mouth to speak, yet no noise left her body. Raven was paralyzed as she and the bird just stared at one another in a prolonged moment of silence. Finally, the crow spread its wings and hopped from its perched.

But before its long black talons touched the ground, the bird morphed into a growing black mass of a woman. Her blood red eyes pierced through the darkness as her body formed before Raven. She was the most ethereal being Raven had ever seen with her porcelain skin and endless obsidian mane that wrapped around itself in thick braids. The woman cloaked in shadows stood much taller than Raven at first but grew smaller as she slithered nearer.

"My child," the woman's voice echoed as if it was made up of a choir. Raven wanted so badly to interrogate, to conjure a protective shield, to draw a portal anywhere else, yet Raven could do nothing. The woman's lips outstretched into a smile, fangs bared on each end. She stood before Raven and brought her long, elegant white fingers to Raven's cheek. They were the coldest fingers Raven has ever felt, yet she took comfort from the touch. The woman brought her other hand to Raven's other cheek and held her face for a long moment. What Raven couldn't realize is that the woman's touch changed her without any notice. The hair that still drifted dreamingly above her head lost all of its color; black rapidly blanching to silvery white. Her soft, elongated limbs flushed to a dramatic deep crimson. The teeth behind her lips grew sharp and thick as a second pair of white eyes opened around her chakra. Raven was clueless to her shifting body as she only knew this form in times of her rage, yet now in the presence of this creature, she knew nothing but shock.

"There you are." The woman smiled before tilting Raven's face downward. "You are so beautiful," she brought her black lips to Raven's chakra and spoke softly in a language Raven did not know, but she could recognize a spell in any language. Despite her rising heartrate, physically Raven remained languid. The woman repeated herself several times and the stone began vibrating in rhythm with her words. Entrenched in her ears Raven felt a sinister humming growing ever louder, like an echoing drum beating the walls of a deep, dark cave.

Raven blinked her eyes as she tried to fight the unconsciousness crawling through her. Her limbs tingled and collapsed beneath her. The woman held Raven up by her face and Raven's eyes stayed fixed on her ominous smile. "Be free, child." The woman whispered. "Greatness awaits." Her words haunted Raven as they were the only things she could cling to for consciousness. The woman tenderly kissed Raven's lips before dissipating into a thousand little black moths that scattered from her vison.

Raven landed on all fours, breathing heavily while barely holding her head up. It had begun to rain, it's icy drops jabbing her bare skin. For the first time Raven saw her own hands beneath her, as red as the eyes of the woman who haunted her. Her fingernails were blackened sharp claws that curled against the felt beneath her. She couldn't remember the last times she felt so angry and ashamed. Trigon's smirking eyes appeared behind her own, and a growl grumbled at the back of her throat. It grew louder and deeper and the ground trembled beneath her. She felt exhausted as the last of the breath in her lungs left her, and she crumpled onto her stomach.

Raven lay still and listened to the pattering of rain against the roof around her.


	5. Aftershock

As a large green gorilla lay panting on the foam flooring of the training hall, Garfield began to regret his offer to help a scorned Koriand'r punch her frustrations out. After a tingly transference back to himself he sat up and shook his head at the alien. Kori was almost smirking as she wiped the smallest trace of sweat from her chin.

"I'm taking a fiver, Star." He huffed and lay back down on to the rubbery ground.

"Thank you, Garfield." Kori said and sat down next to her friend. "I feel better than before."

"I would say any time, but I won't. You'll kill me." Kori giggled in agreement and nudged his arm. Suddenly, the floor beneath them began to slightly tremble and it was just loud enough to hear. The two of them looked at each other and remained silent while listening to the growing rumble. They glanced at their own shaking reflections in the wall of mirrors and cautiously stood. Garfield peered around and instinctively held out his arms in a defensive stance.

"Is this a quaking?" Kori asked and grabbed onto one of Garfield's arms. The distant shuddering grew more intense like a breath exhaling before ceasing completely. He slowly shook his head and looked up at her with uneasy eyes.

A few floors above, Victor was fastening down the monitors closest to him for dear life until the room stilled. After carefully settling his devices upright he quickly sat and checked a CPU to assess the source and magnitude of the seismic activity. When he realized the source came from above the tower and not below, Victor stood and walked over the push open the glass panel. He jumped out and shot himself up along the tower, tearing against the icy rain that thundered against his metal.

Raven was curled up lifelessly on the roof, drenched and pale. He repeated her name several times when he gently turned her onto her back, but she didn't respond. As the rain hit her face, blood splattered across her lips. Victor quickly scooped her up and ran across and over the edge of the roof and dove for the main floor balcony where Dick stood staring upward, guarding his eyes from the congealing rain.

"What's going on?!" Dick asked as he held the balcony door open for them. Victor brought Raven's limp body over to the couch and laid her down. Dick stole a hand towel from the kitchen counter and brought it over, carefully blotting her face dry of the blood. "We have to prop her up." He said when he realized it was coming from her nose. He secured the towel over her nose and slid his hand to her back to lift her up. Despite being drenched in freezing rain, her skin was balmy against his own. Garfield and Kori emerged from the elevator doors and hurried over to the couch.

"What happened?" Kori asked as she studied an unconscious Raven. Dick stood up and went back to the kitchen, searching the drawers for more towels.

"I just found her on the roof." Victor said calmly as he assessed her vitals. Garfield knelt down beside the couch and held the towel back up to Raven's nose. He could feel the warmth of her skin through the fabric and brought his other hand up to her cheek. "She's burning up?"

Dick returned with a cold compress he found in the freezer and handed it to Garfield. He pressed it firmly between his hands for a moment to loosen it before gently resting it on Raven's forehead.

"What was she doing on the roof?" Kori asked Victor. "Was it she that made the tower shake?"

"I'm not sure but it came-" Victor stopped and pulled away when he noticed Raven's eyes start to flutter open.

"Raven?" Her eyes rolled around behind their lids, but she managed to focus on Garfield in front of her. He cautiously drew the towel away from her face and she spotted the blood.

A coldness fell over Raven as she remembered the crow woman, and suddenly she was upright and grasping at her tensing chest and falling stomach. Her rigid breath grew louder as her rattled eyes searched the room, unable to make sense of the fluorescent lights and dark shapes around her. She could hear their voices fighting to reach her over the horrible cawing. Garfield grabbed her wrists and forced his face into her view. He repeated her name until her eyes focused on his, and she knew he was telling her it was okay. She felt another pair of hands gently tuck her damp hair behind her ears with soft and delicate fingers. Without taking her eyes off of Garfield's, she eventually found a kinder breath.

The room had been torn about in Raven's panic, but she didn't seem to notice the table on its side or the TV hanging by a wire from the wall. Scattered books lay face down against the ground next to cups and couch cushions. Raven focused only on Garfield's face in front of her and Kori's soft hands rubbing her back.

Flashes of cawing darkness spun around Raven's mind, and she couldn't fathom an explanation of what had happened to her. "I couldn't move." Raven weakly spoke, acknowledging a lingering stress around her sternum. The only thing she knew in this moment was unyielding dread, and she began to cry. In a brief moment of shock, the Titan's glanced around at each other. Garfield cautiously reached out to pull Raven's hands away from her twisted and damp face.

"You're okay Raven, you're safe."

"I don't think so..." Her lips quivered as she fought back more tears, but she ultimately surrendered. Her hands reached out to him and he quickly accepted, wrapping his arms around her shaking torso.

Garfield's eyes widened and looked up at Vic and Kori who shared his worry. None of them knew what to think of something powerful enough to scare Raven this much. Nervousness fell over the room, otherwise silent apart from Raven's sobbing and the rain pattering against the glass.

Garfield softly rubbed her back and asked her to breathe. As she heeded him, she was soothed by a scent like vetiver and the warmth emanating from his skin. Despite this, a chill seeped through her bones and though her cries lessened, she began to shiver against him.

"We need to do something." He wrapped one arm under her legs and swept her from the couch.

"I will fill the bathing tub with the hot water." Kori suggested and gestured for Garfield to follow her, leaving Richard and Vic alone by in the common room. They exchanged glances briefly before assessing the damage. They silently put the room back together to the best that they could. Victor ended up ripping the shattered TV from the wall and carried it out of the room. He looked back at Dick who had tossed the last book on the table. He nodded solemnly and then disappeared through the threshold. Dick stared in thought for a moment after the doorway before bending over to pick up the assorted pieces of broken ceramic.


	6. Fear and Rage

On the other side of the city, in the furthest corner of Old Town, stood a half-charred gilded-age mansion. Most of its windows were cracked or bordered up completely, save the tallest and most grand window of spectacular stained glass. The rain pattered madly against its many panels, though from the other side of the glass, its drumming was drowned by the sputtering fire that billowed in the hearth of the dark, desolate room. Shadows gathered just under the weak light of the stained-glass window and took shape of a young woman.

The milky skin that wrapped around her dark bones shimmered a cerise glow against the fire. Ebony lips parted as breath was drawn inward, and they turned upward as she exhaled. She moved closer to the fire and the light illuminated her long burgundy hair that curtained gracefully across her porcelain skin. Her dark eyes flickered against the flames, and as if she absorbed its light, they warmed to a deep cherry wine.

"I told you." A voice as smooth as it was deep spoke over the crackling. "I told you she would be too sentient to be manipulated through sleep." The man glared from the hallway before crossing the room to stand behind her. The small veins of silver throughout his black unruly hair glimmered against the light of the fire while his sharp blue eyes traced her delicate silhouette.

"Hush, mortal." The woman smirked, rolling her eyes as she lifted her hand. A long strand of hair dangled from her long, ivory fingers. "I have what I need, and so does she."

"She knows you now." The man growled impatiently. "She will be much harder to touch."

"She knows not but fear," she dropped the strand over the willful flames that suddenly bellowed as they soared and blustered, "and rage."

"It is done, then?" he asked after the fire calmed.

"Not quite. When she discovered me, I had to improvise." She confessed and turned to him to bring her hands up to his face. Her fingers gently caressed the silvery stubble along his jaw. "But worry not, Sebastian," she kissed him tenderly before pulling away with a smirk, "it has begun."

He let out a hesitant sigh before nodding. The woman released him and moved towards the obscureness of the hallway. "Was it as you suspected?" he asked before she disappeared into the darkness.

"Just."


	7. She's an Enigma

**Chapters 1-12 were condensed into six chapters :) **

 **[1]**

The air was thick that evening as the Titans took turns checking on Raven.

After Kori reported her inability to keep Raven conscious while in the tub, she volunteered for the first shift and delivered the cambion to her bed. It wasn't long before Garfield joined her, smiling at the thought of Raven's reaction to them both loitering in her room as she slept.

"I thought I was done for," Garfield whispered as he recalled the previous evening, "she just appeared out of nowhere...ears steaming…"

Kori quietly giggled but with furrowed eyebrows. "'Ears steaming'?"

"It's a saying…like she was mad," he explained.

"Oh, I do believe you," the alien's eyes widened, "but she was bleeding?"

"It was on her shirt…from her nose." His eyes lazily focused on a small crystal that he toyed between his fingers. "She shrugged it off, so I did too."

Kori regarded him curiously, sensing an annoyance in his demeanor. He did not look away from the crystal in his hand until the sound of Raven's door opening distracted him. Dick stood in the doorway awkwardly, hesitant to walk in.

"Has she come around yet?" he asked while scratching the back of his neck. When Garfield realized that Kori wouldn't look at him, he shook his head. "I thought I'd take a turn…if you wanted to sleep."

"Go ahead, Star." Garfield nudged her reassuringly. She glanced up at him with vexing eyes before she silently stood to leave the room, without regarding Dick at all. When the door shut behind her, Garfield couldn't help but scoff. "What did you do now?"

Thankful for the levity, Dick sighed and moved across the room. He sat heavily in Raven's chair and rubbed his good eye. The other was lined with a blotchy shadow that was still slightly raised. "She broke it off." Garfield's forehead crinkled in disbelief, and Dick nodded with a taut grin of acceptance. "Probably deserve it."

"Probably," Garfield shrugged with a delayed smirk, "but still. That sucks."

"Thanks."

"Looks better," Garfield alluded to Dick's swollen eye, "…probably didn't need to headbutt you."

"Probably…" Dick smiled, "but I get it." A beat of silence passed before Raven squirmed in her bed, stealing their attention. "Any idea what happened?" Garfield told again, as he had with Vic and Kori, of Raven's bloody nose the night before and then of her manner after she woke up afternoon. His tone grew more annoyed as he went through it all again.

"I should have known something was up."

"Don't beat yourself up. She's an enigma." Dick said, his eyes fixed on Raven's unconscious body. "I know she means well…but sometimes I can't tell if it's for us or her." The two of them exchanged smirks and silently watched her chest rise and fall with each breath.

Garfield broke the silence. "When are you going?"

"Tomorrow." Dick answered and he looked down at his hands that folded together. "I don't feel good about it, especially now, but…" Garfield sensed his discomfort and watched him as he stared angrily down at his fidgeting hands, "it's Barb…she's needs help…and I have to go." He peeked up at Garfield briefly with guilty eyes. "Don't say anything?"

After regarding him silently, the Changeling nodded.

Enough silence passed before Garfield sighed and stood up. "Come on, Grayson," he stretched out his limbs and back, cracking joints on the way. "I hear some beer calling." Dick followed him out of Raven's room with a smile.

 **[2]**

Moments after her door slid shut behind the boys, Raven slowly reanimated her body to sit upright. She had come to just in time to hear Dick call her an enigma but remained still and silent with her back to them. She clung to Dick's words, curious to agree with them. While she would like to think she's always doing the best by her friends, she admitted that pride could have the slightest hand in her reserve...

Guilt warped her insides, condemning her for such egotism. What if that thing had been after the Titans? It was reckless not to caution them even after all the warnings. Part of her wondered if she just didn't want to believe she was in any danger…they were only dreams, so why should she worry them unnecessarily? And yet, Raven knew better; she's not a child anymore.

Flashes of the crow woman fluctuated within her skull, and she began to realize she couldn't really make out its face. In fact, the more she tried to visualize it, the less like a face it seemed…more like two inflamed eyes in the midst of a deep, dark pit. A chill rolled down Raven's spine at the thought, and she threw her legs over the side of her bed and stood. Her limbs reacted stiffly while her head pulsated with pressure, but she persisted with deep breaths. She walked over and began scanning her bookshelf without any real leads or headings.

Raven racked her brain trying to put pieces together, hoping to find a trigger of meaning. This woman, or more a creature, was after the memory of an ablution. But what Raven could not ascertain was as to why this particular one, as it would be the first of several attempts. Yet more immediately, Raven feared how it was able to permeate Raven's soul self and join her subconscious. The first thing, Raven decided, was to protect herself from such an incursion in the future.

With this thought she lifted off the ground and hovered in front of the tallest shelf. Her fingers trailed across several spines before they picked and pulled one from the rack. It was a collection of old Azarathian fortification spells.

Raven's feet lightly found the ground once more and she carefully flipped through the thick and cracked parchment.


	8. The First Departure

[1]

The lights in the common room were soft as the rain gently clattered against the windows. Hovering above the couch, Raven sipped some tea while her eyes perused a book. She had not slept since the boys left her room the previous evening, and in lieu of sleep she had been studying text after text since well before dawn. Aside from a small incantation and some burnt mugwort, she had little luck in finding a sound protection spell, since much of it depended on what kind of force threatened her. She knew nothing of what or who the woman was, where she came from, or what was done to her. Raven did not understand the phonetic sounds that were hissed into her chakra, nor could she apprehend its effects thus far. She felt tired but grew restless. Her body felt stiff while anxiety fluttered through her. Eventually she became agitated enough and found it impossible to wait in her room for the sun to break over the horizon. Consequently, she had settled in the common room hours before another Titan made an appearance.

Victor strolled into the kitchen soon after the first sign of natural light, murmuring a tired greeting before fixing himself coffee. He only asked how she felt and left it at that, and Raven was grateful. She only found herself hopelessly wishing that the rest of them would follow suit. Though after a few minutes he firmly told her she had to go out and get a new TV. They eyed each other humorously, and Raven just nodded. He sat beneath her and flipped through some kind of engineering-centered magazine, from what Raven could tell. In his presence she realized she was happy to not be alone anymore, and the two Titans kept to themselves in each other's company for rest of the morning.

Periodically, her eyes would dart from the pages of her book to the vacant and dark doorway, anticipating someone to walk through it. She began to feel almost unsettled by the stillness of the Tower. Unsurprisingly, she felt Garfield in his room a couple floors above. She assumed the rain and lack of sunlight peeling through his curtains would keep him asleep for some time. A couple floors down, Kori was also in her room, where she has been since Raven woke up last night. She scanned the entire Tower for Richard, and when she found him, her eyes peeled open. She lowered herself to the couch and set her book and mug on the table.

"He's leaving." Her voice was husky from neglect. Victor peered up at her with quickening acknowledgment of what she meant. "He's loading up the bike."

"The hell he is!" Victor jumped up from the couch and followed Raven through her portal.

They caught him strapping one of his bags to the back of Victor's cruiser. "Morning." Dick smirked when he felt their sudden presence behind him.

"I said I'd think about it!" Victor walked to the other side of the cruiser with his hands on his hips. "That does not mean 'yeah, no problem buddy, go right ahead'."

"I thought I'd try to bribe you with the promise of upgrades..."

"Upgrades," Victor scoffed, but then quickly narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. "what kind of upgrades?"

"I don't know," Dick's smirk grew wider. "I'd take her into one of Fox's shops…let an engineer take a look?" Victor's dubious expression gradually softened, and his posture straightened.

"Fine," He crossed his arms. "when exactly can I expect her back?"

"Well, the longer it takes...the more upgrades she'll get?" All but Victor's raised eyebrows remained still, "I don't know." He dropped his arms in defeat. His eyes fell on Raven for the first time, and guilt spread across his face. He looked back to Victor. "If nothing else, I can send it back to you."

Victor looked at him a moment longer before holding his large metal hand outwards.

"Thanks Vic."

"Yeah, see you around Grayson." Cyborg shook Dick's hand firmly, offering a friendly nod before turning away to leave Raven and Dick alone in the garage.

"How are you Raven? Feeling better?"

"I am." she sensed his discomfort as it saturated her veins and filled her stomach with knots. She felt his shame, his worry, his determination and calmly reached a hand up to his swollen face. Her fingers lightly kissed the skin around his black eye and forehead. A soft, ivory glow radiated from her fingertips as the skin healed beneath its shimmering light. When her hand retreated, his face was left fresh and renewed.

"Thanks,." Dick smiled, cautiously pressing his fingers around the once bruised skin. Raven kindly smiled and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "We'll miss you."

"You'll call if you need to, right?" It wasn't really a question.

"Don't worry, go do what you need to do." Raven whispered and gave him a knowing look as she stepped away. He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth cautiously, but retreated when the garage roared open and unleashed a tremendous patter of water against cement. The smell softly flowed into the garage, with it a warm breeze that gently billowed Raven's hair from her shoulders and wrapped around her body. While he was careful to guise any expression, Raven still sensed his relief.

However, there was a stubborn twinge of guilt and of frustration that refused to be forgotten and demanded closure. It wasn't hard for Raven to guess its derivation, and as if the universe didn't find this scene dramatic enough, a sudden streak of pink fell with the rain just outside of the garage.

The mildly damp alien slowly walked into the garage, glaring. Richard cleared his throat and glanced back at Raven, but she was already gone through a portal.

"I do not wish for you to leave without saying goodbye."

"I didn't think you'd want me to." Dick avoided her eyes, but to his surprise, she snaked her arms around his neck and pulled him into a firm embrace.

As she withdrew, Kori eyes held his gaze firmly. "Goodbye, Robin."

Her eyes subtly glossed over, but she turned away before he could see this and walked out of the garage. With a final glance back, she leapt into the air and flew against the rain until she reached the balcony. Just inside, the three other Titans were gathered in the kitchen.

Kori slid the door open and solemnly looked around at her teammates before joining Victor by the window. She hadn't noticed how cold she was until an arm wrapped around her shoulders, swathing her in sudden warmth. She looked at Garfield as he hugged her closely, and she gratefully rested her head on his shoulder. "We got you, Star." His body heat thawed her chill until Raven emerged from a portal with a towel, and together they wrapped her up in it. Kori looked to Raven, who grabbed her hand and squeezed it. On the other side of her, Vic remained still and silent, his eyes fixed on a black speck making its way across the Tower's grounds. Standing together before the window, the four Titans watched in silence as the cruiser faded from their view.

[2]

Victor was the first to turn away, soon followed by Raven and Garfield. Kori remained by window, gazing about the dreary, blanketed skies that drooped above the city.

"Raven," she mumbled without breaking her stare, "do you feel well enough?" Raven observed the alien's silhouette from the couch where she had resumed her seat. Though she knew what Kori was after, she found it hard to answer. Garfield and Victor looked over from the kitchen, anticipating her response. Kori looked over her shoulder at Raven before turning her whole body towards her. She readjusted the towel around her shoulders and walked over to sit down next to Raven. "You frightened us."

"I'm sorry." Raven's eyes cast across Kori's face before falling onto the book in her lap. "I don't want to frighten you."

"We just want to help." Garfield had crossed the room and was now sitting on the edge of the coffee table, facing her. Guilt and discomfort inflated her chest as she regarded them both; her lip daring to tremble.

Kori's hand reached for her own. "It is all right, Raven."

She took a deep breath and gathered herself, rolling her eyes at her own behavior. "I had this dream…"

Raven went on to tell them of her dreams as vaguely as she could get away with. She told them about the temple under the moons, of her mother's voice and of the horrible cawing…and of course of the crow that lured her to the roof.

"And you don't know who she is?" Victor asked of the woman that shifted from the crow. "Or what she did to you?"

Raven shook her head. "Freed me, apparently...but I don't know what from."

"Is it Trigon?" Garfield asked firmly. "I mean, could he have escaped?"

"I've considered that." Raven murmured with her eyes fixed on the book in her lap. "But her powers just felt different...and even if he could escape...I don't know...I'm trying to figure it out." Garfield, Vic, and Kori all eyed each other but didn't dare say verbalize their shared concerns. Victor's communicator suddenly buzzed wildly in his pocket, and he fished it out before excusing himself from the room. From the tone in his voice, they all knew it was Karen.

"Do you think she will come back?" Kori asked softly. Raven shrugged and opened her book, fanning aimlessly through its pages.

"I've been looking for a defensive spell, something to protect myself…and the tower," she mumbled, accepting the fact that it was easier said than done when she didn't understand what kind of magic to deal with. Once she reached the back cover of the book, she softly tossed it on the coffee table. She rested her face in her hands and rubbed her tired eyes with her fingertips.

Kori gently patted Raven's shoulder. "We will protect you." Raven peeked from behind her fingers to reveal a grateful smile. Kori returned the smile and rose from the couch, the towel still wrapped around soggy clothes. Soundlessly, she caught Garfield's attention and glinted her eyes towards Raven. She announced that she would go check on Victor before taking a bath. She winked at Garfield encouragingly before leaving them alone.

In the lingering silence after Kori left, Raven noticed that the rain no longer bellowed against the tower or its bespattered glass windows. Though still mostly obscured in endless gray, the skies seemed to split just slightly to let a peak of sun through. Garfield watched as Raven was drawn to the balcony like a moth to the light as she stood and crossed the room. She slid open the doors and stepped outside, her bare skin unbothered by the wintry mist that shrouded the skies or the sodden cement beneath her feet. She inhaled deeply, relishing in the fresh petrichor that charged the air around her. It filled her lungs with comfort, and she exhaled tranquility. Raven heeded closely, the wind singing across the bay and the waves dancing along the shores below. Seagulls fluttered with the breeze, calling for their families to join them in the skies while the sun still glistened against stormy waters. Raven cherished each one of her senses and leaned further into this contentment and she smiled; forgetting, if just for the moment, the night terrors of cawing women.

Raven drew in another deep breath through her nose, this time picking up a new, equally stimulating scent. The faintest drumming first distracted her ears. It quickened as it grew stronger and Raven almost believed it was within her own chest. She didn't realize that Garfield stood behind her until his voice engrossed her attention. There was something about the way his eyes held her now that made her blush.

"What?" She narrowed her eyes to mask her embarrassment. He joined her against the banister and smirked before repeating himself. His unruly emerald locks swayed gently in the breeze.

"Hang out with me today."

"What?" Raven said again, this time through a smile. "We hang out all the time."

"I mean just you and me…and I mean somewhere else." She warily searched his eyes, as if trying to recognize a stranger. "Let me take you out to eat?"

As the moment hung in the air Raven recognized the strangeness and for the first time, it seemed so obvious to her. She was suddenly very aware of how close he stood before her; his body turned towards her with one arm leaning against the banister...his face only inches away from her own.

"You mean…like a date?" She almost cringed at the word but achieved impassiveness. She could not seem to sense outside of herself, thinking at first that she felt his nervousness, only to realize it was now her own heart that throbbed inside her chest. Raven felt confused and elated and furious and hung on every second that preceded his response.

"Would that be so bad?" He asked so softly Raven wasn't sure he spoke at all. Her eyes combed him one more time, waiting for any punchline, relieved when it never came. She grinned shyly and shook her head.


	9. The Pendant

The break in the storm did not last long as thunder began rolling in from the West.

Raven peeked through her curtains up at the darkening sky and made a note to grab her galoshes on the way out. She walked back over and stood before her mirror to finish applying her lipstick. When she was done, she swiveled her hips away from her reflection. Raven wondered briefly if she should ditch the fishnets for some pants, but then the tightness of her chest posed a better question: why feel this nervous about hanging out with Beast Boy? Of all people. He's seen her at her rawest, so why should she care if her ass looked better in skirt or jeans? She had to know a third change of clothes wouldn't calm her nerves.

She couldn't shake the way he looked at her; though it wasn't so different to how he's regarded her in the past, but she felt it so keenly as they stood inches apart, the bay singing beneath them with its breath swirling around. Her chest actually fluttered at the thought…it was revolting, yet Raven smiled to herself.

Outside the swelling downpour trundled in over the city, announcing itself with a quick flash of lightening. Raven nodded at her reflection and began unbuttoning her skirt.

A few floors above, Garfield aggressively dug through a pile of clothes on his floor with one hand, while the other clung a towel around his hips. Unsure if they were clean enough to wear, he'd judged each piece first by visible stains and then by smell. He grabbed the crumpled pants that he had kicked off to the corner of his room the night before, and as he did this, something fell from a pocket and onto the floor. He picked it up and quickly recognized it as the small rock he'd been twiddling with while talking to Kori. Between its jagged edges, the small faces were smooth to the touch and glistened a charming purple in the light. He'd have to sneak it back into the dungeon before the dragon realized her treasures had been pinched.

Garfield stepped into some boxers and then the pants, returning the gem to his front pocket. From his pile, he found a sweater that still smelled of detergent and pulled it over his head. Just as his ears breached the collar, he heard a knock on the door.

Victor walked in and double took the Changeling. "What ya doing, Beastie?"

Garfield grinned bashfully as he glanced himself over in the reflective TV screen. "Taking our resident demon out to play."

"My man," Victor smirked as he patted the back of Garfield's shoulder. "You clean up good, B."

Garfield smirked as he combed his fingers through damp hair. "Don't I know it…what's up, Cy?"

"Their train gets in soon. I was gonna see if you wanted to come with, but uh…" Vic poked Garfield's side playfully, "my dudes got plans."

"Yeah he do." He struck a dorky pose before low-fiving Vic's metal palm. The cyborg laughed and turned with Garfield to leave the room. "Kori?"

"I'll see if she's up to it." He said as he followed Garfield down the hallway. "You sure Rae's up for this, I mean with what's going on with her?"

"Not really, but," Garfield shrugged, "there's always something going on with her."

"Fair." Victor shook his head as the two of them stepped into the elevator. After a quiet moment, he voiced the thoughts that ran through both of their minds. "But she hasn't really been like that…since Trigon. You think it's him?"

"I want to say yes…but I don't get the layered reality…trans-inter-pan dimensional prison thing she said he's in…and she seems confident that he can't get out…"

"But this…crow lady? Our friend whose token is a big black bird is being haunted by another big black bird…seems strange, right?"

Garfield vaguely nodded. "I get what you're saying."

"I'd believe he's messing with her…get her to lose control and release him somehow. I don't know…maybe try and get more from her."

"Yeah," Garfield scoffed. "Because asking a girl to dig deeper into her daddy issues is charming and romantic."

"Okay, okay," Victor laughed in agreement, "Keep your coms on, and I guess just call if the skies start splitting."

"You got it boss." Garfield said as the elevator doors opened to the common room.

"Have her home before midnight, ya hear?" Vic sneered as the elevator doors began to close. Garfield managed to flip him off just before they shut completely.

[2]

With only the sound of rain thrumming outside the Tower, her room felt extremely still. Raven restlessly checked the time and knew she had some of it to kill. Instinctively, she closed her eyes heavily and invited a deep breath into her chest. Her legs lifted and crossed beneath and her hands rested on her knees. As her breath grew and diminished, she sank into a warm darkness as the rain outside echoed softly around her. Without any real permission or intent, she returned to the temple ruins as it now stood in Azarath.

The skies were thick stratums of dark smog, as the wind still carried the ashes of her father's wrath. Raven peered around solemnly at the ghosts of the guardians and monks that raised her. Everything they had cloaked her in, she destroyed. Her own mother, now only a sentry of light within Raven, left behind to forever detain his darkness.

Raven's eyes fell on the stone plinth, its edges eroded and smothered with grime. She softly drew her fingers across its coarse surface, leaving behind smeared prints. Just from the touch of it, it's earthy odor on her fingertips, she heard chanting through the hazy winds, _One portal, one door, no passage other, no more._

She felt her mother watching from below as Raven's body dangled from the air, ashamed and helpless. Repentant of her former self; for what she had done in the Church of Blood all those years ago. Raven felt this and she understood. It was a hereditary shame.

Raven slowly climbed onto the dusty slab and crossed her legs beneath her. _One portal, one door, no passage other, no more._ She thought back to the final ablution she would ever submit to. It was soon before she'd make the voyage for Earth. Her mother would not attend.

A silver chain tickled the back of Raven's neck and she looked down at her chest. From the chain, a long stone pendant hung delicately between her breasts. Her fingers explored the smooth surfaces of the stone's prisms, each face glistened in the light…and she remembered. Her last ablution with the guardians took place on the eve of her fourteenth birthday, and her mother had given her this necklace that morning.

 _"In the darkness," Ariella smiled as she clasped the silver chain around Raven's small and elegant neck, "when you cannot see me. I am here." Her warm, beautiful fingers softly wrapped around the stone._

Raven wrapped her own fingers around the pendant as she sat alone in the desolated chamber. She closed her eyes and she whispered, "I miss you, mother."

The pendant felt warm in her hand, "But I am here, Rae." She felt Ariella's smile.

Raven's eyes glistened at the faint sound of her mother's voice, and she felt a knot form in the back of her throat. At that moment, a different voice called for her attention, and soon Raven ascended from the chamber.

His voice gently drew her back to the Tower, and as her eyes opened to his toothy smile, they perused him, slow and deliberate. Garfield seemed almost alien to her in his handsomeness. He even combed back his hair, though a few strands remained defiant as they fell over his face. His unkempt eyebrows furrowed over those deep green eyes as a look of concern spread across his face.

"Are you okay?" Raven quickly realized her cheeks were damp just beneath her eyes. She stood and hastily wiped them dry with the back of her hand.

"Yeah," she laughed at herself and walked over to the mirror to fix any smeared make up. "My eyes must be dry."

Garfield scoffed and walked behind her, smirking at her reflection. "Really? Do we need to get you a humidifier, Rae? Before you just evaporate completely into blood and tears?" Raven sneered as her eyes rolled from him back to her reflection. Reflexively, her hand reached up to touch the vacant skin below her neck, thinking again of her mother's pendant. It hadn't survived her father's attack in one piece, but she remembered she was able to salvage the largest of them before leaving Azarath.

She scanned the shelves and tables that displayed her many jewelry pieces and gems. When it wasn't in its obvious place, her search became more desperate. She barely acknowledged Garfield's enquiries.

"A pendant," she answered as she rummaged through her drawers, "or a piece of it…it was my mother's…where…shit…"

Garfield watched nervously as Raven combed through her shelves and began rifling through her things. In his sunken stomach, he knew what she was looking for, but he asked what it looked like anyway.

"It's dark purple…almost black and has really faint specks of gold if you look hard enough."

Garfield slowly pulled the gem from his pocket. "Like this one?"

Raven ran over and picked the broken pendant from Garfield's palm. She tenderly wrapped it in her palms and held it close to her chest, smiling in relief. Her eyes found Garfield and they even almost glossed over. Before he opened his mouth to explain himself, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and embraced him warmly. In a kind of shock, Garfield was slow to return the hug and chuckled nervously.

Raven eyes teared up again as she stepped away from him. "Do you ever still miss them?" She whispered, searching his eyes anxiously. He held her gaze firmly, but she watched him go somewhere else, seeing their faces in place of her own, and Raven was immediately regretful. She turned away from him and collected herself. "I'm sorry. That was dumb…of course you do. I'm just…being stupid."

Garfield pulled her back into his arms and hugged her closely. She hesitantly hooked her hands around his arms and rested her head against his shoulder. "You up for this? We don't have to go."

Raven stepped away and softly glowered at him. "We have to leave this tower, Gar. I need to do something…fun."

"Fun?! Careful what you ask for, Rae." Garfield grinned and gestured towards her door in a slight bow. "After you."

Raven hesitantly smiled back, wondering briefly if she had lost her mind in agreeing to go out with this green idiot, but as he stood there beaming madly at her, she decided she wasn't in any real hurry to find it. She just softly shook her head in giddy disbelief and led him from her bedroom.


	10. Rollerbank Heist

In a dragging moment of physical agitation, Raven was overpowered. Her flushed hands clung to the coolness of the rigid floor, as her eyes fluttered against the kaleidoscopic lights. Her ears rang with loud, grumbling music and warped laughter. Finally, as her head cleared, and she acknowledged Garfield's voice.

"Are you okay?" He carefully knelt down beside her, slowly helping her to sit up. Raven glared at the roller skates at the end of her legs before glaring up at Garfield. He grinned widely, failing to suppress his laughter. "For someone who flies more than she walks, you're really good at falling."

Raven quickly enveloped him in black, forcing him onto his back with his skates in the air. "This is dumb."

"Oh, come on, Rae," Garfield stood and skated over to her. "You just need to center your stride, mama." She glared at the hands he held out to her. Reluctantly, she accepted his help and warily lifted herself from the ground. When her grasp steadied, Garfield eyed her accusingly before grounding her. Raven rolled her eyes before her wheels met the floor. He began skating backwards, towing Raven carefully.

"When did you even pick this up?" Raven asked with her eyes fixed on the ground, determined to keep her legs wide and straight.

"Back in the day, Vic and I came here on weekends to scope out girls."

"Who like Mrs. PacMan over there?" Raven smirked, still refusing to look away from the impending floor. He squinted his eyes and suddenly released her hands. "Wait, no…" she wobbled as she reached out for him.

"You've got it." He laughed, skating circles around her. She focused, slowly making longer strides. Garfield cautiously approached her from behind to rest his hands on her waist, "Steady…"

The warmth of his skin against her own and the rock of nerves at her center distracted Raven from her momentary curse against gravity. She would have been annoyed by it if Garfield hadn't propelled her forward, sending fear back to her forefront. In a subtle panic, Raven managed to steer herself towards the side of the rink, grabbing on to the railing as soon as it was in reach. She lifted herself onto the railing and sighed contently.

"See, natural." Garfield said as he coasted to where she rested. "We picked a good day…it's a ghost town."

"Well, it is three in the afternoon, on a…Tuesday?" Raven gazed around at the desolate rink, lit up almost contemptuously by the reflective glimmering disco ball that Garfield insisted the attendants lower, despite the fact they were the only customers they'd seen for hours. "It's nice." She smiled at Garfield. "I don't like people."

"But you're so friendly?" he answered. Raven rolled her eyes and laughed along scornfully.

"It's not people so much as it's their emotions. It's hard to block everything out."

"What does it feel like?" Garfield asked, now leaning against the railing, facing the empty rink. "To absorb everyone's feelings."

"It's not so much that I absorb them, like when you're sad it's not like I become sad. I can just feel your sadness…does that make sense? When it's just one or two people it's easier to compartmentalize. But when I'm in a crowd, filled with different emotions, it's like…trying to listen to fifty songs playing on top of each other…" Raven heard the words and grimaced. "That sounds crazy, right?"

"I kind of get it." Garfield said, though his face expressed uncertainty. "So, like, at the Tower…do you feel our feelings all of the time?"

"I mean, sometimes," Raven said, "but I've had years of training myself to actively tune you all out. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to live at there…too many hormones." She eyed Garfield playfully before her attention was directed towards the entrance. "Speaking of hormones…" Garfield glanced towards a group of teenagers still in their school uniforms as they made their way towards the skate counter.

"You know," He said as he slightly pushed himself away from the railing. "The first couple years at the Tower, I thought you hated me."

"I never hated any of you." Raven defended.

"I know that now, but back then…before Trigon, I couldn't figure out why you were so...cold towards us."

"I know, but to be fair…" Raven's eyes fell onto the ground. "I could tell what you thought of me…or at least I could feel it…and it didn't feel very good." She peeked up at Garfield who appeared thoughtful. "It wasn't an easy thing, you know, escaping to a new dimension, seeking the help of strangers who didn't understand me or my powers to stop Trigon from destroying the Earth…and I'm not Koriand'r…I'm reserved…an _enigma_ ," She slightly scoffed.

Garfield regarded her intently, charmed by her candidness. He watched her bite her lower lip, as if embarrassed by her own honestly. Speckled with disco light, he wanted to touch his fingers to her cheek, run his thumb along her plum lip before maybe pressing his own to them. When her wavering eyes finally landed on his face, his pulse spiked while trying to work up the nerve to tell her how beautiful she was. Yet, his mouth opened and soon closed with a defeated sigh. Raven sensed this, reflected his anxiety, and blushed anyway.

, "So," he finally managed, "how long were you awake then?"

"Not long before that." Raven answered, crossing her legs. "I'm sorry, by the way, for downplaying what was going on with me. I didn't mean to make you feel guilty."

Garfield shrugged, casually spinning slow circles on his skates. "I get it. You're… _reserved_." He smiled playfully. "I like to think I respect your boundaries."

"You've gotten better. However," Raven raised an eyebrow, "finding you in my room in the middle of the night might be a breach of those boundaries."

"I smelled blood and you weren't answering…" he defended. "Something bad could have happened. I'd do it again."

"I guess that's…sweet?"

Garfield smirked before leaning back against the railing. A small silence passed before she sensed his apprehension. When she looked down, he was grinning.

"So…"

"What?" she asked agitatedly.

"Do you… walk around the hallways topless at night often, or…"

"Azarath, stop..." She grumbled through her hands that hid her dramatically flushed cheeks. "I'm honestly shocked it took you this long to bring that up."

"I mean, I just want to be sure to steer clear, so I don't disrespect your boundaries on accident."

"Oh, I'm sure." She rolled her eyes. "Fuck, that's embarrassing."

"Don't be embarrassed. It was awesome." Raven shot him a threatening look as a black glow enveloped her hands. Garfield braced himself.

She lightly grinned."You know…making it fair would be awesome…"

"Are you saying," he leered and swiveled to face her, "you want to see me naked, Rae?"

Raven's eyes darted around his face, and as much as she didn't mean to, she pictured him. Garfield double-took her eyes as her irises were saturated with a bright lilac. Before he could mention it, she whispered a soft, velvety, "Down, boy." Garfield subtly licked his lips and Raven felt empowered by his arousal. He was so close she could smell his skin and she wondered then, maybe for the first time, what he may taste like. However, the sound of the students breaking onto the rink pulled Raven back to remember herself. Garfield glanced over his shoulder, having also been distracted by their loud entrance, and when returned his attention, her demeanor had softened; eyes returned to their normal indigo.

"Okay." Garfield sighed with the slightest smirk and skated backwards from her. "Fair is fair."

"What…" Raven's eyes widened as pulled off his sweater and tossed it at her. "I was joking Garfield, don't." He peeled off his undershirt and threw that at her as well. "Gar!"

Garfield skated around the rink; his arms held proudly above his head as the strobe lights flickered against his green skin. Some students laughed, and others even cheered encouragingly all while Raven hid her beaming face behind her hands.

However, as a few sulky students passed Raven, she heard them snickering to each other. The taller boy then called out smugly, "Kermit should put his clothes back on."

As an quiet anger grew in Raven's chest and she eyed Garfield, who continued strutting around the rink, blissfully unaware. A small voice in her head told her it was harmless and that she should probably stop fixing her eyes on the kid like a target. She almost listened, but the boy continued to mock Garfield. She wanted to stop him before he was in earshot of them...but she also wished to see the kid smack his face against the rink.

A few seconds later, the small group of students found themselves sprawled across the floor, arguing over who tripped who. A small, secret smile found Raven's lips.

Garfield coasted over to the pile of kids and held out his hand to a smaller girl who was cradling her elbow. When Raven realized the girl was hurt, guilt drove her off of the railing.

"You okay?" Garfield asked as he carefully helped the girl up. Even though she appeared grateful, the boy who had been scorning him pushed Garfield's arm away from her. "Easy," Garfield warned, "I was just helping."

"She's fine, Michelangelo. You can piss off." The kid was trying to square his shoulders with Garfield, as if that made him look taller. The Changeling scoffed and backed away, throwing his hands up in sarcastic surrender.

"Whatever dude." He said and turned to skate back over to Raven, suddenly feeling incredibly exposed and dumb for being shirtless.

A different boy called out. "What lab did you escape from anyway?"

"Frankenstein's?" Another one laughed, but it apparently didn't take with the others, because she felt inclined to add, "…because he's green…"

Trying to ignore the slurs, Garfield skated back towards Raven with his head bowed, but he paused when he realized she was gliding passed him. He heard her grumble "little shits" as she evaded his attempt to catch her. His eyes followed her with nervous fascination.

"Hey!" Raven flashed a manic smile when she approached them. The taller one once again puffed out his chest, and smugly furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Are you really going to trip her and then be rude to a stranger for helping her up?" Raven approached the girl and gestured for her arm. "May I see?"

Though her face was twisted with suspicious fear, the girl allowed Raven to touch her. As quickly as she could, Raven held her hand over the girls elbow, and with her eyes closed she absorbed the bruising.

"Okay Elvira, I didn't trip her." He noticed the faint glow between their skin. "what are you-"

"That's weird," Raven scoffed and faced him, "because I watched you trip over yourself and then use her has a cushion. She's half your size!"

"I don't know what you're doing," the kid smirked, "but you should get out of my face and take Planet of the Apes with you before the circus realizes it's missing a couple clowns."

"Really?" Raven grimaced. "Listen, _you_ should probably apologize to your friend for using her as a safety mat, and then to my friend who had enough reserve to not bite your head off."

"Really? Bite my head off? " He mocked, sneering to his friends. Raven glanced back and shrugged at Garfield, who shook his head bashfully before transforming into a great green polar bear. Even though the kid did well to mask his panic, Raven felt it coursing through her veins. "Fucking freak…" He spat, shaking his head. Raven's smile lit up.

"You think he's a freak?" She asked as all four glowing yellow eyes opened and fixed themselves onto him. The kid's eyes widened in horror as he watched her skin flush and her hair blanch, seemingly unaware that she had him hanging a few feet above the floor. "I'll show you freaky."

Whether it was the loud roaring of a huge green carnivore in the center of the rink or the sight of two figures dangling in the air, the rink attendants felt compelled to retract the disco ball and activate the main lights. When exposed by the fluorescence, Raven dropped the boy and emitted a surge that completely killed the rink's power.

Calmy, she returned to the ground and carefully, almost comically, skated to Garfield and pulled him towards the railing.

Having activated the backup generator, the attendants managed to provide dim lighting to the rink. They rushed over to the center where the boy lie unconscious, thus leaving the counter unmanned. Garfield took advantage of this as he quickly ducked behind the counter to grab their boots.

"Hey!" An attendant yelled when he spotted Garfield behind the counter. "Stop them! Call the police!"

"Garfield!" Raven laughed nervously and jumped behind the counter as well. Without time to spare, she drew a portal and pulled Garfield in after her, leaving the rink in chaotic confusion. By the time an attendant reached the counter, they were gone.

When questioned by his shouting supervisor, the young clerk could only call out in utter bewilderment, "They took the skates!"


	11. You Wretched Shadow

Following the disappearance of the Rollerbank Rink and Arcade offenders, two unconcerned prep students surveyed the settling dust with amusement. The short, black-haired girl looked at her friend before nodding towards the entrance. He lifted himself from the wall he had been leaning on to lead her from the rink arena. Even though the sky was still overcast, the boy fluttered his deep cherry eyes against the brightness of day.

The two walked silently along the damp sidewalks, waiting only until they reached a covered construction tunnel to shift back to their true form. The two students reemerged into the light as a young woman with long, Dutch braided burgundy hair, wrapped in a black double-breasted dress coat.

When the rain softly resumed, she retrieved a large umbrella from her sleeve and opened it against the drizzle. She paused at a quiet intersection before crossing the street towards a discreetly marked café. Easily navigating through the dark, hazy room, she reached a small booth tucked in the back corner and stood before the table. She waited for the gentleman sitting in the booth to acknowledge her.

"Well?" his velvety voice was thick with smoke as he held onto the drag of his tobacco in his mouth.

"I could not get close to her." She spoke dispassionately.

"And why not?" he asked, peering up at her. Her lips tightened with frustration, and she said nothing as she took the bench across from him. "So…you've accomplished giving the girl a fright, but otherwise failed to make any progress in our mission. I wonder what I've waged for you."

"Let me remind you that I am not for your hire. We both know who I serve."

"The same as I. Yet I have hosted you warmly in this realm and I just worry that I've overestimated your value in our pursuits."

"Please," the woman scoffed, and waved over a server. "Was there not value in the visions? By what other means would you have acquired the truth?"

When the young server visited the booth, she ordered a glass of merlot. Once alone, the man sighed and crushed his cigarette in an ashtray.

"Yes, you confirmed our already presumed suspicions about the girl. However, what use is your power if you cannot get close to her?"

"As I told you before." She said after nodding thanks to the server who poured her wine. "It has begun…I may have not been able to get to her this time, but I beheld a potentially charming development of sorts."

"And to which development do you vaguely allude?" The man did well to mask his interest. He had found it to be of the more effective means of power-playing with this brilliantly vain creature.

"An emotional development," she smirked as she sipped her wine, "of erratic passion with looming tragedy."

He impatiently sighed. "What are you getting on about, you wretched shadow?"

Her fiendish smirk grew wider as she reached her hand out to his. "Love, my darling. I am speaking of love."

"What, the girl?" a curious smile spread across his lips. "Who?"

"The shapeshifter." She answered and watched him sit back in his booth to ruminate.

"Interesting." He smiled to himself, and eventually to the woman who smugly supped her merlot. "Though, he could complicate our plans…"

"Or make them easier."

"What did you have in mind?" The man's eyes twinkled with keenness as his lips curled with admiration. The woman observed this and stole the last of the wine from her glass.

"I think it's time for Brother Blood to step from the shadows for some fun, yes?"


	12. You're in for it, Beastie

[1]

The late afternoon sun managed to permeate through the thick November overcast as the rain had almost ceased completely. While gentle winds continued to lull the bay waters, for the moment, the city was brilliant and shimmering; soaking in the damp sunshine.

From a sudden rip in space, Raven and Garfield spilled onto the damp concrete of the Tower's roof, and the skates still strapped to their feet made for an awkward landing. In an attempt to avoid crashing on top of her, Garfield spun to the side and dropped hard onto his back, scraping skin against the rough tarmac. He grunted loudly as he sat upright and nursed the sting through broken and exasperated breaths. He noted their boots had landed a few feet from him and he began untying his laces as Raven stirred next to him. She, too, frayed some skin in various places from falling on her face.

Raven sluggishly rolled over and exhaled through the adrenaline that still lingered in her chest. As he pulled off his skates Garfield eyed her with sly bemusement, a look that made Raven summon the last five minutes with scrutiny. Her lips spread into a nervous grin that ultimately cracked into an involuntarily snort; their eyes widened at the sound, and her hand flew to her face. In a stupor, Gar watched as Raven descended into bloated and contagious fit of laughter.

"What…" his grin drew out in disbelief. "Are you…giggling?" Her cackle was muffled through her palm while her other hand shot out to smack his shoulder.

"Who even are you?" he laughed.

"I don't know," she sighed and peeked over at him, "but that felt, _very_ good." As he held her gaze, he regarded her irises brighten to a new, vivid hue. He couldn't remember having seen this trick before, but she was also not one to maintain eye contact long enough to notice. When he realized she was blushing, his eyes dropped to her lips.

"So…" They threw their heads back towards an unfamiliar voice. Roy Harper was posted against the parapet with a rolled cigarette between his fingers. "What am I looking at?"

"Oh, hey, man." Garfield called out before slowly standing. Raven pulled off her skates before she did the same. Roy crushed the joint against the bottom of his boot before Garfield reached out to shake his hand. "You been here long?"

Roy shook his head. "Not long enough to unpack. I have to say I was disappointed to see you've snagged the penthouse since the last time I was here."

Garfield smirked and crossed his arms against the chill breeze. "After Dick and Kori got together, there was no staying on the same floor." Raven handed him his boots, hers already back on her feet. He gently nodded and took them from her. "Thanks."

"I don't blame you," Roy said as smoke gathered in the back of his throat; his forehead furrowed smugly when he released it into the thin air, "I mean, it's not a total loss. I'm in close quarters with one foxy, recently single space princess." When Raven scoffed, Roy glanced over her with a smirk. "Hey sunshine, that's quite the cute giggle you got there."

Raven tried to ignore Garfield's poorly suppressed laughter as he tied his boot laces. "Hey Speedy," she sneered, "So you're a smoker now?"

"I've found it's a perfect excuse to get out of awkward situations. But I didn't expect to find one up here…and yet," Roy lightly brushed his finger across one of Garfield's nipples, "are you cold, buddy? I could cut glass with those."

The attention now on Garfield's lack of shirt, and nipples, it occurred to them both that his sweater was still draped over the railing at the rink.

Raven squirmed. "I'm sorry…"

"It's fine, it was only my favorite sweater." Garfield shrugged playfully. "No big deal."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll go back."

"I'm joking. You probably shouldn't go back there, like ever, definitely not now."

"Which brings me back to my initial question," Roy interjected and gestured towards the skates that dangled from their hands. "What is this?"

"Garfield causing scenes-"

" _I'm_ causing scenes?!" he scoffed incredulously.

"You were the one stripping!"

Roy tried again. "And why-"

"You were terrorizing the teenybopper!"

"Oh, I was not _terrorizing_ him, Garfield."

"What would you call that, then?"

Raven paused and shrugged piously. "Scaring straight?" Garfield pursed his lips. "Whatever! The kid was a prick."

Garfield nodded and nudged her arm softly. "Total douche." The corners of her mouth perked up demurely.

"Well." Roy cleared his throat and straightened himself. "I'm definitely all caught up, I guess. Good talk." He walked between them and headed towards the elevator. Garfield smiled at Raven before bowing, gesturing for her to walk ahead.

A rogue gust of wind charged across their path, blinding Raven with her own hair as it reeled in its stream. She ran her fingers through her hair to try to tame it and in the corner of her eye she swore she caught the faintest shadow circling above.

Garfield, who had been watching his skates spin as the laces disentangled, almost walked into her. Before he made a comment on her walking skills, he noticed she was nervously scanning the sky above them. "What's up, Rae?" Her staggered response was shaken off as she moved forward, trying her best to ignore the distant cawing that she knew only touched her ears. Relief found her when the elevator doors closed, cutting off all winds and sounds but Raven now realized how hard she had been breathing. When she looked around at Roy and Garfield, she met concerned and apprehensive glances. As the elevator descended, Garfield asked her again if she was okay, and she nodded truthfully.

"I'm a little, drained, maybe." She sighed and looked to him. "I think I need to take some time before any other exciting potential endeavors befall me."

Roy shot Garfield a questioning glance.

"No worries Rae, do your thing…did you have fun, at least?"

After a quick, insecure glance to Roy, Raven rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yes, Gar, thank you."

Roy felt smothered by the tender energy and was grateful when the elevator doors reopened to the main floor. He hastily split from the closed space, followed by Garfield who couldn't help but peek back before also stepping from the cab. As she followed after him, she spotted the fresh and deep scrapes along Garfield's back and quickly stole his arm. Before he could protest, her palm hovered over the broken skin and a pale, glimmering warmth spread across his back. Even as she felt the energy drain from her, her eyelids bowing heavily and her breaths curbing, she persisted until the skin below her palm was healed.

Garfield smirked when she was done. "You know that I heal pretty fast on my own."

"Well," she said, her tired eyes darting around nervously, "now, you don't have to."

When she finally met his gaze, despite the swelling in her chest, he faintly laughed and turned back towards the common room. She tried to shake off the sudden nerves and treaded behind him until he abruptly spun towards her once more. As smoothly as he could imagine, his fingers twined through her hair and seized the back of her neck to gently pull her closer to him. He kissed her softly, and swiftly, forcing a steady breath when he pulled away to whisper, "Well, thank you, then."

Raven shook her head hazily and bit her bottom lip. "…welcome."

Relieved to see her small smile and flushed cheeks, Garfield triumphantly swaggered backwards to turn around, but first ran into the doorjamb with his shoulder. He quickly recovered with an embarrassed shrug and smiled back at her before walking through the threshold correctly.

Raven was left a statue in the hallway, stunned and blushing and unsure of the stirring within her whole body.

[2]

Karen Beecher jumped from the table when Garfield emerged from the hallway. "Garfield!" she yelled and wrapped her arms around him. "Where is your shirt, green bean?!" Her hand reached up and brushed the top of his head. "You're taller than me, what happened?!" The Changeling awkwardly chuckled and only shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, Karen," Roy jeered while taking the seat next to Victor. "There's this thing called puberty, and it can make boys to mature over a period of time…being a scientist and all that's kind of embarrassing for you."

"That's good, Harper." Karen said sweetly with an edge as she stepped away from Gar. When she saw Raven behind him, she quietly squeaked and ran over to further stimulate the overstimulated empath.

"What's with the skates, B?" Vic asked. "You know you're supposed to return those, right?"

"I traded my shirt for skates, Cy." Garfield replied impishly as he hung the skates on the back of the chair across from Victor and took its seat. "Just the kind of day I'm having."

"So…?" Victor murmured and slightly bobbed his head towards the girls. With a secret smirk, Gar shook his head at Vic to let him know he'd get into it later. The cyborg gave him a playful thumbs up just before shouting Raven's name sharply.

"Where's the TV, woman?" Victor asked spiritedly. "How am I supposed to watch my stories? Roy here wants to try me in Deathboat III, but I can't show up without a functional monitor."

Raven held out her hands sarcastically, "Take it down a notch, huh? We didn't get a chance today…can't you use one of the thousands set up in your room until I can get one tomorrow?"

Victor laughed at himself. "I'm just messing with you, Rae. But," he squinted his eye and pointed at her, "for real, tomorrow."

"Titan's honor." She held her hand over her heart and turned back to Karen. "You were saying?"

"I haven't seen her. I think she's in her room. I didn't want to bother her if she's sleeping or what. Vic went by after we got here and said she didn't answer her door, so."

"Break ups suck." Roy sighed and rested his hands behind his head. "It took me weeks to snap out of my funk after Donna split. And I still feel shitty about it…best thing is to get her out of her head."

"We should do something nice," Karen agreed. "Maybe we can make her dinner…something from home?"

Raven, Garfield, and Victor all verbally disagreed simultaneously, and Karen rolled her eyes. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"Well for one, yes it can," Gar said firmly, "and two, most Tamaranean food require alien ingredients, which we _unfortunately_ don't have."

"Yeah, the best we can do is maybe that green gelatin stuff she said reminded her of sweet…glorbcotix or glorgotts…something like that. Do you remember?" Raven asked the boys.

Victor nodded. "Yeah it was that gross ass jelly dessert."

"'Gross ass jelly dessert'…got it." Karen folded her arms wryly and sighed. "Well the first step is getting her to come out."

Victor shrugged and looked to Raven. "Maybe she'll let you in?" After a moment of tired consideration, Raven nodded and silently left them all in the kitchen.

Karen peeked to make sure Raven was off to the floor above before she hurried to take the seat beside Garfield.

"She seems fine to me…" She said and Victor nodded his head in agreement. "How was she with you, Gar?"

"Why are you whispering?" Roy asked her.

"She was fine." Gar insisted. "She had fun."

Vic grinned coyly. "My dude."

"But what was that on the roof? Is she scared of wind?"

Karen looked to Gar. "What happened on the roof?"

"Yeah, that was…weird." Gar admitted. "That's where she was when it happened-"

"By 'it' you mean a visit from a paralyzing crow demon?" Roy interjected with the slightest tone of skepticism.

"Maybe she got spooked?" Karen suggested.

Victor was doubtful. "Raven's not really one to get…spooked."

"She started like, hyperventilating," Roy said, and Karen's eyes widened with concern.

"It wasn't that dramatic." Gar insisted.

Roy disagreed. "I thought she was going to hurl."

"Okay," Garfield held up his hands. "She got weird for a minute. But it's Raven, she's been through worse."

"Nothing weird happened when you were out?"

Garfield hesitated. "I wouldn't say… _weird_ …"

"You sure about that?" Vic smirked.

"Yeah," Karen laughed. "What would you say then?"

"She may have gone full spawn of Trigon on a school kid…"

Victor snorted.

"What's does 'spawn of Trigon' mean, exactly?" Karen asked.

Gar stirred uncomfortably in his chair. "Red skin, white hair, four eyes…the whole get up."

"Shit, what did he do?" Vic's demeanor sobered. "She didn't hurt the kid, right?"

"No…just scared him." When he discerned their faces, he ruefully straightened himself to come off more confident. "Seriously, it wasn't bad…it was actually kind of awesome."

"She doesn't usually change like that unless she's about to wreck someone." Victor said forebodingly.

"She was in control." Gar asserted beyond his certainty. "She's okay, you guys. I promise."

"You'll watch out for her, then?" Karen asked, a small grin hiding on her lips.

"Yeah," Gar was quiet for moment before he nodded, "always."

"That's nice lover boy," Roy said cynically and stood up from his seat, "but if you think with your dick too long you could be blinded by the hard truth and before you know it, we'll all be burning in perpetual interdimensional darkness."

"Don't be so negative, Roy." Karen asserted as she watched him walk over and open the fridge. "Not everyone has such morbid views of relationships."

"That's just because," he grabbed a glass bottle and closed the door again, "they haven't had their heart ripped from their chest and devoured by a beautiful succubus, yet." He grinned at Gar and he resumed his seat. "Just you wait, Beastie, you're in for it."

"Thanks, man…good pep talk." Garfield joked and Roy winked at him before popping his beer open with his ring.


	13. Warmth

Kori's room was comfortably dark and abnormally humid. Years ago, she had Victor try and exclusively manipulate her room's heating and cooling systems to mimic that of Tamaran's tropics; on this particular day, she took extra measures to feel like she was home.

When the sun finally interrupted the passing storms earlier that afternoon, Kori was compelled to tighten her curtains to block it out. Raven, of course, kept her quarters murky on regular basis and did not mind the Kori's hazy and dimly lit chamber, though the humidity was noticeable, to say the least. Raven quickly began to sweat beneath her many layers.

As Victor suspected, Kori did easily decide to answer the door when Raven had come knocking. She found alien half-wrapped in her duvet color with only a slip to cover herself. Her wild magenta hair was frizzy and suppressed into a full, bouncy bun by the largest scrunchie the cosmetics isle could offer. While Kori was initially calm, the Cambion picked up her truer, heavier emotions almost immediately. Rather than answer Kori's causal questions about her time with Gar, Raven sat bed the alien on her bed and scooped up her hand. As Kori stared at their two hands, she descended into a release that sent her quietly sobbing into Raven's shoulder.

Raven fought her exhaustion as she held her friend, her mind darting around Garfield's lips and her father's eyes, all while barring the Tamaranean's misery from becoming her own. Kori was just sad, thinking and remembering, missing the very first person who made Earth feel like a home. She felt angry and vulnerable and ultimately anxious that Dick had truly left her there.

"He's not gone forever, Kori." Raven reminded her. At this point, Kori had calmed herself and sat back to lean against her headboard.

"Yes, I know," she said, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand, "and now I am afraid I may have had an overreaction by ending things." Raven remained silent. "I just felt like, I don't know the phrase…surprised or excluded?" The alien looked to her for lingual reassurance, and Raven only nodded for her to go on. "Like, he was not telling all of the truth." Immediately, Barbara's name came to Raven, and in that moment, it occurred to her that she was also angry with Dick for being so withholding. If Batgirl was in trouble, why would he go alone? "Am I making the sense?"

"Yes," Raven quickly answered but for the best thing to say that would avoid lying to her friend. For this too, she was angry with Dick. "He wasn't very specific about his plans, was he?"

"No, yes that is exactly my feeling. But still, I now feel guilt…I should have been more supportive instead of so angry."

Raven didn't like the feeling of Kori's self-inflicted shame; it really wasn't fair. "No, you are supportive, Kori. You hold me together, you keep human…well more human?" Raven reached out for Kori's hand again, and the alien smiled warmly. With a firm grasp Raven slowly closed her eyes and stretched her soul-self out, enveloping Kori in invisible warmth.

The coldness of desolation and angst that hungover Kori slowly evaporated as Raven worked within herself to find lendable emotion. To do this, Raven ruminated the warmest memories she had at her disposal…such as the peace she found when she finally defeated her destiny and banished Trigon from this dimension. She remembered how it first felt to belong and the relief of realizing that despite her heritage, she could be a force for good just like her friends. She thought of the first time she successfully defended herself during combative training with Dick…how empowering it felt to know she didn't have to solely rely on her powers to protect herself.

Even though Kori softly giggled with the radiation of positivity that suddenly filled her, Raven remained focused with her eyes tightly shut.

The stream of emotional memories flowed on as she remembered Vic and Garfield's reactions to her randomly beating a level on some game in five minutes when it took them hours. She heard their laughter and felt Kori's arms wrapped around her shoulders…and finally, she saw Gar's stupid, toothy smile and his emerald eyes gleaming when he looked at her. She felt hand on her waist and his lips pressed against hers…and in her sudden elation both eyes split open.

"Raven…what was that?" Kori was beaming, and Raven reflected her. "I did not know you could do that?"

Raven gazed at her friend, "I," she mumbled, finding it difficult to take a full breath. She knew she was on her last leg of mental strength and needed to go. "I, it takes a lot out of me…I'm sorry Star, I have to go rest for a bit."

Kori stood after Raven, offering herself for support, "Sure, Raven, let me-"

"It's okay, I'll make it…" Raven stopped her and offered a tired smile of reassurance. "Are you okay?"

The alien's hands ran over herself as if it was a physical difference. "Yes, Raven, I do not understand how…but I do not feel so sad anymore."

"Good." Raven nodded and drew herself a portal. "Now, get out of this dark swamp and go see Karen and Roy. Come get me for dinner?"

"Okay, Raven." Kori said as Raven disappeared through the portal.

Back in the calm silence of her room, Raven took a long overdue breath. She stood still and silent in her thoughts before walking over to her window to pull her curtains shut, wrapping her in darkness. She turned on her lamp and sat heavily on the edge of her bed, almost glaring at the floor. Raven was exhausted…emotionally, mentally, and even physically as her tailbone throbbed in muffled soreness.

In the last 48 hours alone…too much has happened, and Raven felt everything. A faint ringing found her ears as she held her forehead in her palms; as she ran through it all in her mind it all blurred together as vivid noise. It wasn't so different than the sensation of affecting Kori, just with seemingly every other emotion on her spectrum.

Raven threw both legs onto her bed and crossed them beneath her. She closed her eyes, drew heavy breaths, and searched for her center, resting her hands gently on her knees.


End file.
